Journey to the center of my worth
by hidden stranger
Summary: After a fight with Skipper, Julien is banished from the zoo until he can prove he deserves his title as King. What will become of the ringtail when he is faced with living on New York's city streets? Reviews and advice welcome!
1. Chapter 1

A/N, Greetings POM fans! I'm very glad you've chosen to take the time out of your day to read this newest fic of mine. I've wanted to try an adventure story for a while now with the characters of Penguins of Madagascar and now finally have the time to, so please review if you may and tell me your honest thoughts of what you did or didn't like.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fic except the OC's

Three penguins and two lemurs exchanged glances toward eachother as they stood before a rather heated argument between Skipper and king Julien. It had originally started off with a mere snort of suppressed laughter by the penguin leader as the lemur king began his normal proclaiming of his own greatness bestowed upon him. This had unfortunately not fallen upon deaf ears, for the lemur's were actually quite responsive to everything within several hundred feet.

*snort* Julien turned and narrowed his eyes at the smirking penguin,

"Is something being funny about my kinglyness?" Skipper stifled back a chuckle,

"Oh its nothing Ringtail, only the part about you actually accomplishing something tickled me a bit." He said in a somewhat taunting voice. The penguin leader was not really one for insults as much as the lemur may have been, but when anyone decided to brag about every little thing they believed they did themselves when the flightless bird knew different, he'd find a certain buildup of distaste in his stomach. Julien frowned,

"What is being so funny about that?" He poised to the flightless bird, the lemur standing straight with his tail up tightly against his back. Skipper looked the ringtail in the eye before shaking his head. A voice in his head began spouting off,

_ Oh give me a break, he can't be serious!_

"Ringtail, you're just a "king" because you decided to call yourself one." This line seemed to strike a nerve with Julien, his glare growing darker by the minute. Maurice and Mort both slightly flinched at Skipper's jab at their friend's status. Julien scowled before speaking slowly, seeming to choose his words carefully.

"I am being a king because I am worthy of the position."

_Thats such a load of.._

Skipper put a wing to his brow and facepalmed at the lemur's ignorance. He was like a broken record with this royalty nonsense._  
_

"You're not though, don't you get that? Maurice would be a better leader than you!" He exclaimed, the shorter gray lemur put up his paws,

"Hey leave me out of this, and anyway how can you be so sure Skipper? You weren't with us long enough on Madagascar to even know if king Julien earned his way to the top or not." Maurice said in his king's defense, he knew this could turn ugly within moments and had to get Julien and Mort out of there soon.

The bird eyed the shorter lemur for a second.

"You're right, I don't, and I think because of that, Julien hasn't proven himself that he should be a king." A loud crack was heard as Julien balled a fist at his side, truly doing his best not to attack the penguin for his accusations. His tail began swishing side to side in an aggressive motion as the lemur stepped right up next to the penguin, his mammal form towering above the bird.

"Do not be insulting my abilities Skipper!" He growled as his glare intensified, the penguin stared straight back at him, unmoved by the lemur's threatening stance.

"Or WHAT Ringtail? Face it, you couldn't even last two days on your own and you think you actually deserve to be noticed as a king? you're delusional!"

Julien finally lost his composure and shoved the bird up against the way, Skipper's head smacking against the concrete as he felt the lemur pin his wings to the wall. Julien's tall frame allowed him to stand away from the attempted sweeping kicks by the flightless bird, Maurice and Kowalski began to try and pry the two away from eachother. Private watched in horror, seeing the two friends of his at eachothers throats, Rico staring in energized fascination, his mind pleading for more. Skipper fought hard against his teammate's struggles to keep him still as Maurice found himself having to yank Julien back by the tail as he clawed at the bird.

"I will show you flightless bird who is being king around here and why! You just wait! My kingdom shall be expanded and soon you will be seeing it!" Julien yelled as his aye aye drug him out the hidden entrance of the penguin habitat and back toward their own.

"Don't worry about showing me because you're outta here Ringtail! You're no longer allowed in this zoo, PERIOD!" Skipper cried out in frustration at the lemur that was being pulled away from his sight. Once the door had closed, Kowalski released his grip on Skipper, taking his place between Rico and Private. Skipper turned to them, heaving a deep breath as he tried to get his emotions under control. Private nervously eyed his commander,

"Skippah, do you really intend to banish Julien from the zoo? He does have his own home here..."

"Private I'm initiating an order at this moment, that at 0800 hrs, that crazed lemur is banished until I say otherwise!" He said in a commanding tone, forcing a small flinch by the smallest of the group followed by a gulp. The young bird nodded and then headed toward the hatchway,

"Private where are you going?"

"Well I just wanna say goodbye if that's alright." He said, Kowalski stepped up beside him,

"We should also mention the actual fact Julien will no longer be allowed in the zoo quarters so perhaps I should..."

Skipper," Yes Yes go on!" The two birds headed out of the HQ and went to the Lemur exhibit. They found Mort sitting at the edge of the fence crying into his paws.

"Mort, whats happened?" The lemur didn't acknowledge them but continued crying, Kowalski motioned for Private to stay with Mort as he headed into the lemur's habitat. He climbed up onto the stone walkway where the lemurs seemed to be having some kind of argument, though only one seemed to be arguing.

Maurice, "But you're majesty! You know you're needed here, things will cool off, just think about-"

"No Maurice! I will not be thinking about this! My kinglyness has been challenged! You know that flightless bird is attempting to steal my royal position but I will not be giving it away so easily! If he is wanting proof of my ruling abilities then he shall be having it!" Julien yelled as he worked hastily at stuffing several things into a blanket and tying it to a stick.

"Julien, you're..you're leaving?" Kowalski asked, he knew the fight between Skipper and the lemur had been one to hit certain low points, but this seemed to have fully pissed the lemur off. The only upside though would be the fact he wouldn't have to be the bearer of news about Julien's banishment now, except that did hardly anything to aid the situation. Julien finished his packing and flung the stick over his shoulder, he laid a paw on Maurice's shoulder. The gray lemur looked up to him, his face saddened by his friend's decision to depart, he knew his king would be alright back in their homeland, but this was a city, a complex area with several levels of danger that changed by the minute. Maurice took Julien's paw for a secound, he looked at his friend with eyes that begged him to stay home, to keep from going out and getting hurt possibly. Julien shook his head,

"Maurice, donot be giving me the look of sadness...Stay here until I return." He said, the gray lemur knew it was an order, if he was to come back safe, the least Maurice could do is prove he could keep his word.

"MY loyal subject, you are herby relieved of your duties until I have returned, oh and keep Mort from getting hurt." The aye aye's ears dropped and he nodded to Julien. The ringtail looked to everyone in his habitat, Kowalski approached him with a cellphone.

"Well if you are leaving, take this phone and call us if you get into trouble, its set to speed dial, just hold down 2." He said, Julien took the phone, holding it in his paws eyeing the numbers.

"I am not supposing you happened to have de chinese take out in the speedy dial as well?"

"Oh that's number 5." Julien smiled a little before letting his face turn serious, giving one final nod to everyone near him, he marched out of the habitat and off into the darkness. Maurice and Kowalski, Private with Mort in his flippers watched as the ringtailed lemur disappeared from sight. Private set Mort's broken up self in Maurice's arms as the two birds made their way out of the habitat and back home. Private slide up to the fence and leaped over, opening the hatch for Kowalski,

"Do you think he'll be okay out there Kowalski?" The tall bird shook his head,

"I'm not confident but at least he has a safety line to call for help." With that, the two birds leaped down to the bottom of the HQ, Rico and Skipper had already hit the hay, the almost synchronized snoring gave away the birds unconscious position. Private glanced to Kowalski and then climbed up to his bunk above the leader's, trying to move silently as he could, his commander needed nothing more this evening to set him off. The young member of the team laid in his bed, assessing the day's events, hoping for everything to be back to its original order sooner rather than later, winter was about to raise its wings and bless them with snow and ice, he only hoped Julien would be back by then.

Julien walked through the light streets of New York, several blocks already from the zoo. He'd chosen to stay next to the sidewalk for the time being, but to lurk in the shadows the best he could. Shivers went through him as he journeyed down the street's dark and quiet atmosphere, evening outside of his home in the zoo felt very different. There was a new life to it that was unlike in the daytime where everyone walked and drove all over the place, not now, it was only him and the streetlamps. He pulled out a small LED flashlight keychain he'd picked up off a visitor previously at the zoo, finding the button he clicked and scanned over the road before him. The stillness of it all made him very nervous, he could feel his soft tail beginning to bunch up quickly, his teeth chattering a small bit. He brushed his tail with a paw while he looked around.

_Um..Where should I be going? I am needing to find a place for my royal booty to be resting, but where? _He glanced up and down the street till his eyes caught the alleyway on his right side. It looked quite menacing from where he stood, the ground littered with tipped over trash receptacles, large dumpsters on either side. He could see movement up at the end of the alleyway, apparently SOMETHING lived there already.

"Err it is not maintained enough for someone of my stature anyhow." Turning and heading further down the streets of New York, the lemur tried to stay focused on finding shelter for himself. Taking a right and heading straight, he tried reading a map he'd tucked away in his pack, looking at the layout of the streets, he soon realized he'd already made it two miles outside the zoo, from what he remembered, he was heading south. Julien lifted his royal crown and scratched the top of his head for a second of where to go. After much decision, the ringtailed lemur continued south, hoping he could come across someone who knew the street world better than he. Still reading the map, as much he could understand anyway, he soon collided into something in his way.

"OOF!" The lemur was knocked slightly back but seemed to have shoved whatever stood before him onto the floor. He shook his head and looked over who'd he'd bumped into.

"Gahh Don't hurt me!" a male voice cried out, Julien took a look at the one before him, a it appeared to be a cat of some sort, he didn't have any collar or anything like other cat's he'd seen. Julien gasped,

"an alley cat!" The cat lowered his paws a bit and nervously eyeballed the catlike person, he looked like a cat, his tail though had rings..he had back paws,

"AHHH Raccoon!" The cat cried before scampering off in a hurry. Julien had no choice but to chase after him, this would possibly be the one and only help he would find. He seemed to fear Julien as well, that he could use. The cat tried to cross the street, cars were headed in each other direction! He took a step into the road just as a large midnight bus flew towards him on the street, the cat looked at the impossible to cross rest of the street and then at bus coming toward him. Covering his eyes with his paws, he shook as he felt the large truck like vehicle haul toward him,

"Please don't let it hurt!" He whimpered as the headlights gleamed their deadly embrace of his form as the bus rushed into his path.

He then felt himself being jerked back by his tail back onto the street, wind from the bus's trail blowing through his whiskers as he fell back into the sidewalk onto his back. He looked up to see the one he'd ran from just secounds ago towering over him with his paws on his hips.

"Silly feline, don't you know the human vehicles will make you all smooshy and dead?" He asked the cat. the feline raised a brow,

"well yeah but you were gonna get me..."

"Err hating to be the bearer of bad news but it seems I have still got you." He emphasized with the cat's tail in his paw.

"Good point, well go ahead then, eat me!" The crowned one tilted his head to the side,

"Err do what?"Now the cat was truly puzzled,

"you know, eat me, consume, feed on, devour-" This earned hearty laughter from the ringtail,

'Silly kitty I am not to be eating you." The cat looked at him all of a sudden with frown on his face.

"Oh what am I not good enough to be you're meal? You know I'm offended you think that, its not my fault I don't get enough food!" The "raccoon" bopped him on the head once,

"Ahem shut up a minute please, no its not because of that." He said, pulling the cat back up to his feet, the cat brushed himself off, shaking a paw to rid himself of the shedding fur.

"Look, I am looking to build my new kingdom somewhere in the area around here, do you want to be helping me?" The cat raised a brow again to the creature before him,

"um.. if you think you can find us some food then sure." Julien looked in his bag for a moment before handing the cat a small fish. The feline's eyes grew wide with excitement,

"So then you will work for me yes?" The cat nodded eagerly, drool already pouring from his jaws at the tantalizing fish. He handed the cat the fish, who graciously accepted it with a polite nod before tearing into it with a vicousness.

"Do you have a name?"The cat looked up and nodded with a happy grin,

"Max."

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A/N, Ah the first chapter is always the funnest to get out to the public, I am kind of excited about this story because there aren't a great deal of guidelines to follow this time, it being an adventure tale, can go really anywhere. I would like to see an actual episode where Julien has to rough it in the streets for a night, perhaps to humble his character a bit at least. Please review and tell me you thoughts of what I should do with this and what you might like to see. Thank you for reading and have a great day!


	2. my homestead

A/N, Glad to have your eyes on this page, it tells me you either enjoyed this so much you decided to continue reading or else you're starting this story on the second chapter because you believe first chapters always fail miserably! Haha no I am kidding but thank you for joining us and now I'd like to welcome you to chapter two!

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There are quite a few wonderful ways to wake up in the morning as most do each day. There is the comfort of the sun drifting into your bedroom, the chirping of birds as your natural alarm clock, or the friendly and inviting smack on the side of the head by an otter's paw.

*SMACK* "Auugh" Skipper blind and confused, swung madly before falling out of his bunk onto the floor of the HQ. Leaping to a defensive stance, the bird instantly set his eyes on the fuming otter in his room.

"Marlene! What's the meaning of this?" He demanded.

"Skipper what is going on!" The otter hissed in a quiet but angry voice, The bird tilted his head in question,

"I just finished talking with Maurice about you and Julien's little argument last night, are you crazy? You're banning him from his own home?" The penguin crossed his wings and put on a stern face.

"Marlene, the lemur had to face up to reality at some point. I just got sick of listening to that lower mammal's high and mighty talk and decided to call him on it, so what?"

"Not so what! Skipper, he's going to get hurt, or worse if you keep this up!"

"Kowalski outfitted him with a cell phone, he knows to call if he's in too deep." Skipper said with little worry in his voice. Marlene glared daggers at him,

"And what if he doesn't come back? What if you never hear from him because he gets thrown into a situation that-" Skipper threw up a flipper.

"Too many what if's, The ringtail will be fine Marlene just wait a few days, we'll prolly hear back from him by the end of today." The otter shook her head before turning and heading out the back door entrance of the HQ. Skipper rolled his eyes and sighed as he felt the side of his face where she had hit him, sure the one time he does what everyone couldn't find the courage to do, all of a sudden he's the bad guy. The bird leader looked up toward his fellow comrades who remained asleep in their bunks, Skipper decided he'd give them a few more minutes as he walked over to the coffee maker and prepared some java for the day.

Several miles away in an abandoned lot, a tattered feline and crowned lemur snoozed in a furnished refrigerator box, unaware the day had already begun to make its appearance. Max the cat was the first to awake, giving a long yawn and reaching with his forepaws and then his rear legs for a decent stretch. He cracked his neck and looked to his sleeping companion, the lemur still lay curled up in his bubble wrap hammock he'd put together next to his crown and bag of belongings in the far corner. Max walked up to him, his snoring growing as he came closer, he tapped him on the shoulder hoping he wasn't the wake up angry type.

The lemur groaned loudly before lazily swiping at the offending paw and blinked his eyes open.

"Where...where am I?" He rose to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes with a paw and looked around, seeing Max, his face fell a bit.

"ah, so I am not dreaming." Max looked at him slightly concerned,

"um, is there a problem?" Julien sighed for a second, looking at the cardboard wall he faced and then turned to the feline roommate.

"Nothing is being wrong, I am just thinking I was somewhere else." Not saying anything else on the subject matter, the ringtailed lemur stood up and began digging through his bag. Max watched from behind as the lemur could be heard pawing though many items until he felt what he was looking for.

"Aha!" He exclaimed, pulling out a white rectangle object with a small screen on it with a little circle below it. The lemur hooked this up to a pair of headphones he pulled out next,

Max, "What's that?" Julien looked back at him,

"You're newest boogieing music maker!" He said as he began a number of stretching motions. Max watched in uncertainty of what his new roommate was doing, his curiosity built when he watched the mammal pick up the rectangle thing and hit a button to make the screen light up. a clicking noise was heard as the lemur began scrolling through songs for something to get his body ready for the day. He stopped on one called Soothsayer by Buckethead. Max was surprised by the beginning loud squeaky guitar as the ringtail jumped up in front of him.

"Come on kitty! Dance with me to appease the sky Spirits!" He said leaping around, his long tail following him, creating a fluffy loop as he spun around. Max nervously tried to think up anything to match the music that blared from the headphones. After a few minutes he gained comfort with his efforts and danced in a looser fashion. They both began to laugh a bit at eachother's "style" as the tunes filled the box, Max, while still in his own groove, tripped and fell out the covering wall/door and into the followed him out and looked at the storm clouds in the sky above them.

"hmm, de sky spirits are not in the greatest of moods..." He said disappointingly, Max got to his feet and looked around,

"so what should we do today, ur highness?" He said the last part with slight difficulty, he'd never been a servant of anyone but he had been given food by Julien, he owed him something so far at least. Julien set his crown atop his head and put a paw to his chin in thought,

"Well the Sky spirits say to me it shall be raining so we cannot stay in the box any longer, the king needs a better place of residence, hmm...Are knowing anywhere warm and large enough for a king such as myself and you with food?" The cat tried to think but then shook his head. Julien looked around the vacant lot. The area was full of garbage, nothing truly usable as a weather worthy shelter, he knew it was getting closer to the cold time of the year, they needed to find something houselike with enough room that his royal self could show off to the smarty penguins who would come to see that he could in fact take care of himself. Waving for Max to join him, the two began down the streets again, keeping their eyes peeled for anything useful.

They didn't speak too much the first few streets down, each kept an eye out for buildings that looked empty and useful. During the walk, Max repeated found his eyes trailing over to the small lemur's crown, he'd never seen anything like it before, soon the lemur finally noticed.

"What? stop the staring at me!"

"Sorry, I just, well what are you wearing on your head there?" Julien stopped and removed his crown from his kingly scalp,

"This is being the symbol of my royal position," He stated blatently, sighing soon after as he looked down at it in his paws.

"Its also a position I am needing to earn back as of now." He stated in a defeated tone, Max cocked his head,

"So...you were a king or something and you got dethroned?" Julien's eyes narrowed as he looked straight ahead, He was trying at least to keep his unruly temper from showing, knowing that the feline was only curious.

"No I left the royal home because I wanted to prove to those who serve me, that I am being someone dependable...I also err kinda want to prove that to myself sorta." He said uneasily, if it was the last thing in the world, Julien had the hardest time with speaking lowly of himself. The feline went on,

"So this is sorta like a mission for you isn't it?" The lemur looked at him for a sec and just nodded after wards, Julien continued walking alongside the cat, now trying to think of something to ask him about, he stole a few glances over the side of the cat as they ventured down the streets.

"Um...what happened to your ears? Did that hurt?" Max gave a small look to the side and felt his right ear for a sec,

"Yeah, that's ussually what happens when you gotta fight for yer food. It bled for a few minutes but doesn't hurt anymore." He said quietly, the cat knew he had battle scars all around, but he wasn't one to enjoy talking about it, he was self conscious as it was anyway.

"Who was doing it to you?" Julien asked, merely wanting to keep the conversation going a bit, he despised the awkwardness of silence, it made him start to drift off into deeper thought then he liked, mostly for what he really saw in himself. "It was two big street tabbies, they wanted my fish I'd swiped from the dumpster. One held me down, the other..." The cat stopped mid sentence. Julien could feel he was starting to get too deep into the memory, the cat closed his eyes and shivered.

"while the other...left a message on my body." He said in a battered voice, dropping his head suddenly and pointing to his ears. The lemur felt uneasy and unsure of what to do to fix the situation, how humilating it must of been to be overpowered and permanently disfigured like that. Thinking quickly, the lemur began a story to ease the feline's nerves,

"Heh well if you think that is bad, you would have hated to be the one who got attacked by the foosa, he was able to escape but his limb was broken too badly to be fixed so we had to...cut it off." He said quickly, he'd been overseeing the lemur doctors as they'd worked on the teenage white furred lemur, it was gruesome to watch but the sound was much worse. Max widened his discolored eyes at the lemur as he continued,

"Yeah he had to be knocked out first so it wouldn't be hurting too much...but the doctor had a malpracticed license so he just banged him on the head with a rock," The lemur began physical charades with his story, putting a fist to his crowned head.

"Den, he took out this big sword and-" Max flinched and put his paws out to stop Julien's story but the ringtail continued, "swung too fast and cut off the wrong arm!" Max put a paw to his face in disgust and at the ridiculous method of amputation by the mammal's clan. The lemur tried to make a smile through his grime story,

"Heh, now he is being called feetsy, cuz he had well only his feet to be using."

"So he has to live that way forever." The lemur shook his head quickly, "Of course not! Are you thinking I would let my subjects ednure something as awful as that forever?" Max leaned in to hear the rest of the trooper lemur's tale,

"He died of a heart attack the day after."

Max face palmed once more before just continuing on with their trip. The two came upon an old warehouse building, the doors appeared locked, Max jumped up to the window and peeked in. Julien jumped up next to him and surveyed the scene. It appeared to be empty, only several boxes stashed under some blankets and some machinery layered with cobwebs.

"This is looking like a decent place to set up my new kingdom. Are you seeing a way in?" The cat shook his head, the lemur looked around and then leaped back to the ground. Going back to his bag, the lemur pulled out a bamboo golf club and a T. Max watched him put a small rock on the T, the lemur motioned for the feline to get out of range before he arched back and swung hard. The rock smashed into one of the window panes, only breaking an entrance small enough for them to come through.

Max looked at the newly set up "door" and back at Julien before giving a thumbs up and going inside. The lemur grabbed his pack of things and followed the cat in, treading carefully away from the broken glass. Dropping his bag on the ground cement floor, the lemur's jaw dropped at the sheer size of the building, he could have fit at least twenty of his habitats inside this place! Looking over to see Max running over to the other end, he yelled,

"We have alot of work ahead of us! You get started and I'll supervise!"

Back at the zoo, things operated somewhat in their usual style. Alice hadn't yet noticed the lemur was even gone, she'd been forced to oversee the maintenance of the new habitats being put in on the other side of the zoo. In the penguin HQ, Skipper sat in a vicious new style of chess Rico was trying to teach him. For every knight he lost, that oppnent was forced to play chicken with a live grenade. Had it not been for the leader to try and take his mind off the lemur, he would've stuck by his usual rule of no explosives in the HQ but to the scarred one's delight, he'd agreed to the game. Kowalski busied himself with several projects in his lab, Private offering to be his assistant, merely handing him vile after vile and holding the bottom of the heavy ones when being poured. Private glanced at the phone and sighed,

"Kolwalski, does it bother you that Julien hasn't called us yet?" The brainy bird kept his eyes on the contents being poured into the vat before lifting his monocle and addressing his teammate.

"Yes it is a bit unnerving given his usual antics that most of the time require saving, I want to say its still too early though." Private nodded before handing over Kowalski another object, watching the bird mix the contents gently,

"You think Skippah will let Julien back when he does call?"

"I think so, I know Skipper's been pretty hotheaded over Julien but if he were actually in trouble, I wouldn't see how he could tell him to leave. Skipper will get over this and things will be back to normal soon enough." Private gave a small smile and reassuring nod before hopping down and exiting the lab.

"I'm just going for some fresh air if that's alright Skippah." He said to his commander, Skipper gave a small wave as he remained in deep concentration of his next move. Private climbed the ladder and headed out of the habitat and over to see Maurice and Mort.

The aye aye sat laid back in a bamboo lawnchair sipping on one of his own smoothies while Mort sat drawing pictures of feet a few feet away. Private waved to them as he came in, Maurice sat up,

"Hey Private, hows it going?"

"Oh not bad, just coming by to see how you two were doing without Julien." The bird said, Maurice smiled a bit and looked over at Mort,

"Well the first night was the hard on Mort but later he started to relax after I told him Julien just went on a vacation." "probobly for the best for the time being, hopefully he'll come home soon and this can all be over with." Private said, he waved them goodbye and headed back to the HQ, sliding down the hatch, he hopped in his bunk and picked up a magazine and began flipping through it,

"He'll be fine." He told himself. The young bird just reminded himself that the lemur would be back within another few days.

The only problem was,

He never showed up in the next few days,

Fact of the matter was, it had been three weeks so far since Julien's disappearance, Winter had begun to roll in at full force, huge white flakes crashing into the earth at an increasing rate, within days a white blanket six inches high had formed in the city. Skipper would periodically check the periscope for signs of Julien's return, each time he checked though, not a trace of the lemur's presence was found. The leader sat back against the wall, he was starting to get worried about the lemur, Marlene's constant updates on the fact Julien's survival was getting slimmer didn't help either. Skipper rested his head against the wall of the HQ

"Ringtail, where are you?"

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A/N, Ah chapter two, I'm glad to have gotten this up in such little time and want to thank you all for your reviews so far, send me your ideas of what you'd like to see in future chapters! Thanks for reading and I will get started on the third chapter very soon!


	3. Out of the ice and into the flames

It had taken a great deal of work, days of cleaning, retrieving furniture, finding food sources and setting up to the lemur king's plans. Though after a full week, the lemur king Julien sat atop his new deluxe throne fashioned from a padded stained oak high chair, surveying his newest kingdom. Max reclined in his own side throne he'd come up with.

"Ahh, this is being the life isn't it my new friend!" Julien exclaimed to the cat resting below him on a pillow. Max let out a comforted sigh and smiled up to his king.

"You know it! Ah I haven't ate this much since I was a kid." He said patting his small belly. Finding the food source had been the most difficult, they'd found a corner grocery store owned by only a small family. The security of the place itself was merely locking the door, conveniently though, the rooftop of the building came with a access door that was unlatched. Max had been chosen to be the lookout for Julien as he snuck into the establishment to retrieve the essentials, Fish, fruit, juice and any warm cloth that would protect them against the cold. It had been a lot easier for Max when he'd been able to just go from neighborhood to neighborhood, nicking the left out food families would lay out for their own pets. He hadn't been ready for the amount of thievery that the ringtail had brought him into. For Julien, he'd seen this as a game from the beginning, every mission he'd attended with the penguins had provided him with certain traits he'd been able to pick up. He deeply regretted not having his two loyal subjects to count on to do this kind of work for him as he would much rather enjoyed not having to experience the true brunt of the cold, but this was no ordinary situation.

Julian grinned and leaned back in the throne, his eyes watching the snowflakes drift slowly down outside the high windows above them. As he looked out into the window, his eyes caught something pass by quickly,

"Huh, uh what's that?" The figure leaped down from behind the foggy glass windows, Julien stood up, his tail starting to bush up nervously.

"Eh Max could you be seeing what that was?"

"What was what?" Julien rolled his eyes,

"Over dere, by the window, something's moving go check it out." Max yawned loudly before stretching and meandering over to the far wall the ringtail pointed to. As he approached, he could hear small footsteps crunching through the icy snow along the side of the building. The feline gulped as he took several cautious steps closer to it. The outsider was approaching the entrance they'd made, it wasn't secure by any means, Julien had merely thrown a piece of cardboard over the hole and called it fine. Max took a few steps closer,

"Oh for the love of me I'll answer the door!" The lemur said impatiently, marching over with a large stick he'd fashioned into a spear, fashioning being falling backwards and breaking the larger stick in half accidentally. Just as the door began to slightly nudge inward, the lemur angrily thrust it open to find,

An adult female back tabby cat. The feline nearly fell backwards at the lemur's jerking open of the door, she raised her paws seeing the spear in the gray mammal's right paw pointed to her.

Julien glared at her,

"Who are you being!" The surprised tabby gave a quick look of confusion, Julien rephrased quickly as Max joined him by his side

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The cat kept her paws up, "Please! Don't hurt me, I'm not a thief I just want to get out of the cold." Both mammals looked at the feline with distrust, Max was in his heart a caring cat to any but the years in the streets had taught him to not trust many other stray cats.

"Why should we let you in? This is my kingdom and you're not a subject of mine." Julien stated firmly

"Yeah you could be a set up! I say no, Julien?" The lemur shook his head and gave a shooing away hand gesture to the cat. The black tabby's face fell, ears dropping with small tears forming in her eyes she turned and began to walk away and stopped a few feet,and looked to the side of the warehouse. She shook her head at something, Max crossed his arms next to Julien,

"I knew it, total set up, once she's inside she gives a signal to tell the rest of em its chow time, not today honey!" He said in a proud tone, the first time he'd been able to actually defend his territory had a good feeling to it. Julien however stared at her with his head tilted to the side, her back was to them and she was heading out but why was she still there, what was she waiting for?" Soon the answer was clear as several small black kittens tried desperately to make their way over to the tabby they'd sent off. Max looked at the young felines pushing through the icy snow toward their mother, the yellow cat hung his head,

"Aw jeez..." He looked over at the lemur,

Julien looked at the family departing with fallen ears, this hadn't been a trap, they'd just sent away a family just trying to survive into the freezing cold, evening was approaching quickly, if they couldn't find something soon before it got colder.

The lemur sighed, "Maurice wouldn't allow this even when I WAS his king." He looked at Max and then put a paw to his furry muzzle,

"WAIT! STOP WHERE YOU ARE BEING!" The mother's ear lifted up over the howling winds, slowly she turned around along with the children beside her. The lemur and the alley cat both stepped outside the doorway and waved them to come in. Though it was difficult to see with as much snow coming down as there was, the lemur king and his new subject could see the thankfulness in the cat's eyes as she lead her children in a straight line into the warehouse. Julien shivered and shut the door quickly behind himself as the cat family got warmed up. Watching the mother corral her kids together, the lemur king could only grumble tiredly to himself as he got back to his throne,

_Just get my newly kingdom setup and there's already people needing my help. _

Getting back into his royal throne, the ring tail signaled Max to come to his side for a private conversation. After the small sidebar decison, he snapped his fingers to the mother to approach them. She sat before the two in the high seat looming down over her, unsure what to expect from the likes of either.

Julien, "You are here in my royal newly founded kingdom as my guests for the time being, as long as it is being freezy out, I, nor my assistant can be having you out in the cold streets so you will stay here for now, you are to partake in the chores as Max does." The yellow cat gave Julien an unimpressed look,

"What? Yes I'm going to help with SOME, I have to oversee things first, that is what a king is to be doing." He turned his attention back to the black feline,

"As I was saying, you will do a certain amount of de chores and in return you and your children may rest safely here, agreed?" The mother smiled and nodded her head in accepting of the offer, it was the best option for her babies at this point, all were far too young to endure the harsh weather as she could. Her green eyes stared up into the two sets of eyes upon her, "Thank you for your kindness, pardon my asking but is there something for my kids to eat? We haven't had a meal in a few." Julien gave a small smile at having been spoken to so politely, he pointed for Max to help her find the food storage locker as he watched the kittens while they were away.

Back in the Central Park Zoo, worry had fully set in. Alice had been on the phone with several animal control officers in the area with a description of the lemur the zoo had lost. So far zero results had come through. In the penguin HQ, The cellphone lay in the middle of the table as the birds, two lemurs and one otter stood in a circle around it, Skipper was holding himself the best he could as rescue options were discussed. Marlene swore to the leader of the birds if he didn't go find the lemur soon, she would head off on her own to find him.

Skipper, "Kowalski options!"

"Well Skipper it would be most likely for the best if you called Julien." The leader glared at the brainy bird,

"Any OTHER options." Kowalski sighed.

"We could try to split up and cover more ground but that crosses the penguin credo." Marlene tilted her head in question, Private chirped in for her,

"never swim alone." Soon all eyes fell on Skipper, he disliked the current center of attention quite a bit. Sighing and picking up the phone he began punching in the numbers. Taking one final look at the group, hoping there was another way around destroying his pride. They all stared with anxiousness in their eyes though, forcing the bird to hit the call button and send the signal out to the lemur's phone. He put it on speaker and set it on the table, everyone watched as it rang several times, still no answer. Finally a voicemail came up telling them to leave a message.

"Julien if you can hear this pick up the phone!" Skipper barked and then hit end. The bird closed the phone up and looked at everyone,

"Well, now that we've exhausted that option perhaps we should try the first few streets and make a perimeter search and then just widen it as we go." The other birds nodded, Maurice spoke up,

"And if you don't find him?" he asked grimly, ever since the snowfall he'd been losing hope for his friend's safety out in the streets, his conscience dragging the aye aye deeper and deeper into a field of guilt for not trying harder to stop his king, his friend from going off as he had. If Julien was found dead...he didn't know what he would do. Marlene laid a comforting paw on the lemur's shoulder,

"They'll find him, I know it." The leader nodded and with that, led the three birds out into the blizzard conditions. They would start on the cross street and work their way south, if nothing came up, they would head east to explore the industrial district.

As they slide together down the snowy roads, Kowalski spoke out through the wind,

"The snow's going to have erased any tracks he would've left for us to find, what should we search for?"

"Anything out of the ordinary." Skipper barked back. They headed south for several streets, coming across many stray animals, asking each if they'd seen they're ringtailed friend, many shook their head at the description though or suspected they were describing a raccoon which managed to lead them to many unwelcome alleys and woodpiles. The freezing weather began to take the edge off the bird's motivation as they relentlessly searched the city for the lemur, stopping street after street. Private found himself collapsing from lack of energy, forcing the team to stop for a moment. Rico helped the young cadet to his feet,

"Thanks Rico." The scarred bird smiled and moved back next to Kowalski, Skipper stood out in front of the team looking down the street determinedly. Kowalski put his flippers to his beak and yelled out to his leader,

"Skipper! The snow and ice has eliminated the traces of Julien, we can't find him in these conditions!" The leader kept his gaze down the street, he could hear something faintly through the howling wind.

"Kowalski! That tune, I recognize it! That's from ring tail's ipod! Come on!" The commanding bird led the team down the street, hanging a left and sliding down to the end of the block. They arrived at a large warehouse, the music seemed to be coming from within the building. The four birds slipped up against the wall of the warehouse as Skipper devised a plan,

"Okay men, we don't know Julien's condition so this may be a medical rescue, Rico, I''m going to need a stretcher, a blanket and an IV drip!" The scarred bird hacked up the items in sequential order, eagerly awaiting the next order.

"Good, now one stick of dynamite." A shot of glee spread over the bird's face as he hacked up the dynamite.

"Kaboom?" Skipper help up a flipper,

"Now!" The fuse was lit and the birds ducked and jumped behind cover as the bomb detonated.

"Move men go go go!" The four swarmed into the warehouse as the smoke cleared. Kowalski and Rico both entered the main room of the building as the other's caught up to sight that lay before each of the birds was one they had not prepared for. Julien laughed and giggled as the kittens took turned attempting to jump over him as he lay on the ground,

"Ring tail!"

"O hello there slap happy penguins! Err how did you get in here?" The team leader slid up to the lemur as he got to his feet,

"Never mind that! You, you're... you're fine?" He said in a stunned tone of voice.

"But of course silly Skipper I have not been calling you, why are you here?" The other penguins grouped behind Skipper,

"We thought you were in trouble." Private uttered. Julien raised an eyebrow as he petted one of the kittens that playfully batted at him.

"What you were being worried about's me?" Skipper groaned, "You didn't leave us any choice ringtail, we hadn't heard from you in weeks. How'd you find a place like this anyway?"

"Ah My new royal assistant helped me, oh MAAXXX!" He yelled to the cat to come to his side. The yellow tattered feline came back over to see the four familiar birds in front of him.

"*gasp* Penguins!" They waved warmly back at him, Skipper turned his attention back to Julien,

"Wait so you've been rooming with Max this whole time?" The lemur king nodded with a smile on his face, "Yes look at my new happening kingdom! We already have residents!" He said picking up one of the kittens and nuzzling it. The mother came into the room with a dish of milk in her teeth, she set it on the ground and called to her children,

"Kids dinner, oh who are you four?" She said in a surprised voice, the last thing she'd expected was four penguins around when she'd come back. Private stepped up to the feline mother,

"Apologies Miss, we're from the Central Park Zoo." This earned him a thump on the head by the leader,

"Private! How many times have I warned you of base disclosure to strangers!" Private winced and rubbed his head, "Sorry Skipper, she seemed nice enough." The commanding bird turned his attention to the feline mother, "and just what's ur story Miss? What are you doing-" The bird was cut off by being whacked on the back of the head with a bamboo stick by the lemur king.

"DoNOT be attacking my guests! You are not invited here!" He said in a protective manner, taking his place in front of the cat mother. Skipper grabbed the stick and yanked it out of his paws. "Julien, You're way outta line buster! Alice knows you're gone, which means, unfortunately for us, that you have to come home!" He said pointing the stick at the lemur, Julien shoved it away though.

"You are not to be bossing me around in my own home! That is my job! I'm already home, my new home and I am loving it much more!" He said strongly, Private tried to reason with the lemur,

"But Julien, Maurice and Mort miss you, Marlene as well, with all the other animals. You're needed back there." The lemur shook his head,

"What I am being needed is right here! If I cannot be looking after my new subjects, how am I supposed to be a true king of things hmm?" Private raised a wing to reply, but couldn't find anything to argue Julien's point, Skipper stepped back up,

"Look Ringtail, Marlene is missing you something awful, she thinks you're on the verge of death out in the cold somewhere, you have to show her yourself that you're okay or she'll try to find you herself and get lost or worse hurt." The lemur's stiff demeanor began to soften as the bird spoke of the otter. Julien had always carried a small something for the water mammal that he kept to himself. He wouldn't admit it to the other lemurs he lived with though it was quite obvious he felt something for the girl, each time she passed their habitat he would always be the first to acknowledge her.

Julien sighed and looked back at his new founded home, at Max and at the mother cat and her children. He looked into the face of one of the kittens that stared up at him. If not for him and Max, they would have frozen to death, could he really so dishonorable to abandon them now? His gaze fell upon the penguins next, each of their faces staring at his, waiting for a decision to be made. The lemur stood in silence for a moment, then looked into Skipper's face.

"I...I am sorry Skipper but I cannot be leaving them. If something happened and I was not being here, I-" The penguin held a flipper, not wishing for him to finish that sentence. The commando bird's expression could be seen falling a bit, his hopes of bringing the lemur back with them seemed to be fading with every second he stood before Julien.

Skipper sighed and brought his wing down,

"You don't have to say anything else Ringtail, We're outta here boys." The birds began filing out in a single line, Skipper turned before he left to Julien and Max.

"One thing you CAN do for me Ringtail is call this phone tonight to give Marlene some peace to know you're alright. Hopefully hearing you're alright will be enough, she's pretty worried about you right now Ringtail, I just hope you know what you're doing." Julien gulped and nodded, the penguin saluted and turned and slide off out of the warehouse. Max and Julien stood at the doorway for a longtime as silence stood between them, both just staring at where the four birds they both knew and befriended had left,

Max, "So what are we gonna do about that hole in the wall?"Julien looked up at his friend and then gave a small smile,

"More cardyboard!"

Hours later as the warehouse mammals began calling it an evening, bedding was decided. Max would keep his regular spot near the throne, Julien set up warm yet dusty blankets he'd tracked down from another room in the warehouse. Dragging them over to the foot of his throne near Max, he invited the family of felines to gather and sleep next to his own royal bed he'd set up for himself out of several pillows and bubble wrap as a hammock style bed frame. The kittens got in all at once, snuggling up altogether in the sheets to get cozy against one another. The mother watched outside in the glass as the snow finally began to slow its fall on the outside streets, she turned to watch Julien get into his own bed.

The black feline hopped down and stepped up to Julien's side of the bed as he soon got comfortable. He noticed her sitting by him as he rolled over on his side.

"You know, you didn't have to do all this for us." She said, her green eyes staring warmly into his orange and yellow ones as he looked at her.

"No it is being no big deal, I can't have you all out dere getting frozen." He said, pulling off his crown from his scalp. The female cat smiled with a small "hm" coming from her.

"You seemed to know those birds who were here earlier, what's all that about?" Julien yawned,

"They are being from the zoo, I was, well not really I'm from my homeland Madagascar, but anyway they and me go back a ways." He said resting on his back in the hammock, the mother nodded in understanding,

"Back on you're homeland, you were a king weren't you?" Julien nodded, scratching an itch behind his ear, he was stopped by the cat's paw though, she replaced it with her own, a gentle claw scratching behind the lemur's ear forced a sudden sigh of pleasure from the lemur.

"I figured you were something of royalty, must be the way you wear the crown." She said in affectionate manner, the lemur squirmed slightly as the cat continued scratching down the back of his head and onto a certain sweet spot on the top of his back, forcing him to collapse like doll back into his bed. The cat before him purred as she looked into his eyes,

"You've saved my family, if there's anything I do for you, just say the words, your highness." She said seductively. Julien looked into her green orbs comfortably, he hadn't seen anyone give him the kind of look she was directing toward him at that very moment ever. Unable to think, only able to act the lemur merely wrapped his tail around the cat's and pulled her in for a kiss. The bond seemed to last for hours as the two of them connected, embracing one another. Julien ran his paws over the head and ears of the mother cat, running his fingers underneath her chin, scratching the white fur that traced her jawline. She gently kneaded the fur on his back as they held each other while the others slept soundly. The lemur's mind was a swirl of thoughts at that point, a spiral throwing him into thoughtless bliss, wishing only for the moment to last forever. As he pulled away from the feline, she licked her lips as she stared back at him as he looked at her, suddenly the lemur's mind fell onto something he'd lost track of.

Marlene.

He'd carried feelings for her for over a year now, and he was willing to throw that all away because a random cat had been sweet with him?" This was not right, he'd done something very wrong and now he knew it. The mother cat looked at him strangely as he suddenly jumped from the bed, backing up against the wall with his paws over his face, she ran up to him.

"Hey what's wrong? Did I hurt you?" The lemur shook his head quickly as tears began welling up in his eyes. The black cat couldn't understand what was all of a sudden upsetting the lemur as he slide down to the floor, knees in his chest, with his head in his arms sniffling.

He'd just cheated on Marlene

He'd just thrown away his self made promise to embrace no one but her.

The lemur king sniffled and looked up,

"Please be going back to your bed, I need to be alone." He said choking up as he started crying into his arms again, the feline didn't leave however, she stayed right by him and rubbed his back with her paw comfortingly.

"Hey Hey its okay, what's wrong?" The lemur gulped and blew his nose,

"I shouldn't of, I wasn't supposed to kiss you." He said in a broken voice, The cat looked at him with her head tilted. "Why? You don't seem to be married to anyone, I don't see any girlfriend anywhere." Julien sobbed and tried to contain himself,

"A a girl back at the Zoo, I was going to ask her to be my girlfriend." The mother cat sighed and held the crying ring tailed lemur close to her. "Hey hey, relax, you haven't done too much wrong yet. You can still wait for her and I won't breath a word of this to anyone." Julien looked up at her from his arms,

"You, you would be keeping this a secret?" She nodded. Julien blew out a long breath and took in another, trying to calm himself down.

"Okay okay, I'm alright, I think." He said coming to his senses, he soon relaxed and let his face warm up again, "If you are to be keeping a secret, then this is like it never happened right?" The black cat forced a smile,

"Like what happened?" She said with a grin, Julien jumped into the air with happiness, all was not yet lost, he was still able to pursue his dearly beloved otter. The lemur stood up and extended a paw to the feline when he noticed her face had changed to one of sadness,

"Err, are you alright? you don't look so good." He said, the cat waved it away,

"Oh heh I'm fine, don't worry." She said, hopping up and heading over to her kids wrapped up in the bundle of blankets. Julien shrugged his shoulders and made his way back to his royal hammock bed. He soon fell asleep, feeling a great weight off his chest and able to relax, while the black cat lay curled up next to her kittens.

Listening to their steady breathing helped keep the mother relaxed, though in her heart, it was drowning in the sudden rejection she felt.

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A/N, Wow talk about alot to take in for a third chapter. Well now Julien's got alot more on his plate then he'd intended to and will face more and more challenges as they come, please tel me your thoughts so far, your ideas and what I can do to improve this story. Thank you for reading! I will be using you're ideas, I'm saving several for the next chapter installment so please be patient with me and I will do my best to see how they can be worked in!


	4. Forming a team of my own

A/N, Greeting readers! I've been taking some time off recently, enjoying the mountainous terrain Canada has to offer, thankfully no bears or moose made an appearance during my hikes into the wilderness. I shall be incorporating your ideas into this story as they come so please continue to offer up your thoughts for they help greatly! On a side note, Leo15 I cannot respond to your email address, my computer refuses to acknowledge it as a proper address for whatever reason so you may need to try and set up another account so we can stay in touch or I can respond to you in the Penguin HQ forums.

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"So…he's ok?" The penguin nodded at the otter's question, this aided her mind yet it still spun with questions on the lemur.

"The ringtail's fine Marlene, he's going to call in here a few hours from now, we'll let you know when he does, get some rest." Marlene gave a light smile but her shoulders sank a bit,

"I just don't get it, I mean why wouldn't he come back home? The zoo is probably the most pampering place I can think of." Skipper shook his beak, he knew the lemur's reasoning behind staying away, but to tell the otter now would do no good only create further problems.

"Marlene, I'm sure he'll let you know everything once he calls us, just get to sleep ok?" Defeated by her inner self begging to rest, the otter sighed and left the penguin habitat. Private came next to Skipper as he watched her leave, his comrade seemed to be holding back on something. "Skippah, is there something you didn't want Marlene to hear about just now about Julien? The leader took a firm expression in his beak, he couldn't blame the young cadet for his excellent observational skills, though he disliked the direction they were aimed in.

"Private this is a touch and go situation understood? We can't release information until all the facts have been presented so for right now…don't bring Julien up alright?" The young bird nodded slowly, even he was unaware of how deep of a scenario this truly was panning out to be, how difficult was it really to have all his friends under one rooftop again? Private climbed up into bed and pulled the blanket in over top of him as he snuggled himself into a comfortable sleeping position. He felt exhausted and somewhat let down about the whole day's occurrence.

He and the other birds had been so tired they hadn't noticed the missing celluar phone, which a certain otter managed to lift under their tired beaks. Marlene grinned to herself as she clutched the phone in her paws as she lay on her stone bed, her eyes eagerly staring at the phone for signs of life. Julien would be calling in any minute and she would be the first to answer.

_What do I ask first? Should I let him talk about his new "home" before I start asking about his reasons for staying away?_

Thoughts plagued the otter's mind furiously as she kept her eyes focused on the phone before her. Anticipation was sending shivers down her spine and fingertips as she waited, her tail beginning to thump rhythmically upon the floor. Hey eyes felt like sandbags weighing down her face, every second the phone failed to ring, the eyelashes grew closer,

and closer,

and closer until she could not even see but a mere thin line of light from the candle lite within her dwelling. She sighed heavily as her hope began to seep to the ground,

_He's not going to call_

_He's probably already asleep_

The barely conscious otter hung her head in her paws, resting it on the phone. all day, all she'd wanted to do was talk with the lemur, to pick his brain if anything to see what he felt about everything going on, did he miss his lemur brethren? Did he miss not being able to drive the penguins insane with his antics?

Did...he miss her?

At all? The extremes her mind was leaning towards told her that she needed to get to sleep and now. She would return the phone to the penguin habitat early tomorrow morning, when her head was clear and all was calm-

*Phone Jingle* The Asian otter nearly leaped from her fur as the phone suddenly began buzzing loudly in her paws. Frantically she clawed at it to pull it open, managing to get it to her ear by the third ring.

"H-hello?"

"Greetings Penguins can you be putting de otter on the phone for me, I was supposed to call her before but I fell asleeps." Marlene's face brightened with excitement as she tried to impersonate Skipper's voice,

'Ahem Er yeah Ringtail let me see if she's around, oh here she is." She said in the most commanding tone she could mimic, switching back to her own she re answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Marlene?" Warmth grew within her as she heard him say her name,

"Hi Julien! How are you, er where are you?" She asked, trying not to hit him with too many questions at once but was also very pleased he'd come through for her.

"Hehe, Err I'm doing fine, my newest subjects are all sleeping so I have to be talking very quietly."

"Oh ok." Marlene said in a small whisper,

"What was that?"

"I said oh ok!" She responded in a louder tone.

"Ah okie dokie! Well I am being well in my new royal palace I founded, well I and my assistant Max founded."

"Who's Max?"

"You should be asking the penguins, they know him as well."Marlene nodded even though she wasn't able to be face to face with the lemur,she soon felt an uneasiness as a pause came into play between the two of them.

"Ahem, um so...how've you been holding up since you've been gone from the zoo? Do you miss it here?"Her most expected response was something along the lines of how much Julien would begin pleading with her to find a way to let him come back home, to be with his Maurice and Mort once again and treated as a spoiled child all over. However the response was very unexpected.

"I am doing very well thanks you, I haven't really thought much about de zoo life so far, this is kind of bringing me back to being a king on my home." He said with slight ease, forcing a small wince out of the otter as she continued with her questions for him.

"Ah...so..you don't miss anyone here?" There was a small pause on the line,

"Well I am missing someone but I don't know if I should be saying." He said with slight difficulty. The lemur although miles away from the one his heart yearned for, felt as though he was right before her now, his cheeks even turning a slight tint of red as he waited for her to respond. Marlene's heart began to beat faster as she'd heard these words from him,

_He does have feelings for you_

The otter quickly snapped back into reality, not trying to keep Julien waiting, knowing his patience was naturally shorter than most.

"Oh well I'm sure you can tell them when the time is right huh?"

"Yeah..."

"...Julien?"

"Oh sorry I dozed off for a second dere, yes?" Marlene smacked her head,

"*sigh* don't worry about it, I shouldn't be keeping you up anyway, if you're tired you can go to sleep you know." She said, not trying to unveil her sadness that the conversation was coming to a close, though it was not quite working as the lemur picked up on it.

"Yes I'm thinking of hopping off to bed soon, but Marlene?"

"Yes Julien?" The lemur sat for a second, looking down at the sleeping form of Max and the kittens snuggled in with their mother,

"Err, not to sound weird or anythings but would you like to come to my home sometime soon?"

"Yeah of course, just..."

"Just what Marlene?"

"Um would you be willing to walk me there from the zoo? I'd rather not have to go alone." A smile grew on the lemur's muzzle as he sat against the cold wooden wall boards of the warehouse, his tail lazily flipping from side to side as he pictured the two of them taking a long romantic stroll to his new home, away from everything that kept him from being happy, allowing himself the chance to give his love to the otter that he'd hidden from for so long.

"I am liking this idea Marlene, yes we can do that. I'm going to go to bed now but I will be calling you later ok?"

"Ok Julien, stay safe and keep out of trouble." The phone clicked off and the conversation was finished between the two mammals. Marlene sat back in her stone couch for a moment, her head resting against the wall, letting her mind finally rest.

_He's safe and sound_

_He'll be coming to get you and then you can tell him. _

Marlene smiled as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, the cellphone closed in her paw.

Back at the warehouse, Julien hung up the phone and looked around the kingdom, everything laid still and silent, though his mind was far from ceasing motion. Was it a good idea to invite her there? Did she really miss him as much as the penguins had told him?

Julien sighed and walked over to his royal hammock. Clambering into it, he tucked himself in under the covers and removed his leafy crown, taking it in his paws and looking into it. He'd wanted one for years that he could see his reflection in, this one gave no such feature. Rolling his eyes and yawning, he set the crown down and laid back on his pillow, staring up at the dusty rooftop, the cobwebs that gently swooshed back and forth by the air circulating up near the metal rafters and beams. He felt his black eyelids come drifting down over his eyes, commanding himself to go to sleep.

Morning had risen the next day, bright light shining into the stained dusty windows of the abandoned building several surviving mammals took shelter in, the beams warming their fur as each slowly arose from their slumber. Max shook his head and turned toward the black cat and her matching kittens, all still sound asleep together, snoozing calmly. The yellow cat rubbed his eyes and looked down at the mother, even in her unconscious state, she felt, guarded, protecting herself and her kids against anything desiring their harm. Her soft black eyelids covering her warm green orbs from his view, restraining any possible understanding of her at that very time. He then looked to Julien, the lemur had yet to make sense to him He appeared calm and at peace with his dreams, yet the tear stained fur below his dark circled eyes spoke different. The yellow tabby bit his lip as he moved to wake the lemur king, he did so very gently, as if trying to bring the ring tail down from a trippy dream, rubbing his shoulder in a slow calm motion, trying to kick in his senses but not scare the lemur.

Julien arose with a small headache, pulling both paws to his head, he sat up slowly.

"Stop Max thats enough, I'm up." He mumbled to his assistant. Max stopped his method and watched as the mammal came to his senses. Julien rubbed his eyes and looked around the warehouse, his eyes soon fell upon the family they'd rescued, the family that had complicated his life so. Julien brushed his paws along his face and over his large ears, a comfort to himself feeling his own fingertips bending back his ears against his head as he fully gained consciousness. Giving a small shake of the head, he rose slowly and began stretching his limbs out, reaching for the ceiling, standing atop his toes as he felt each muscle give a satisfying pop as they loosened up. Feeling rejuvenated and ready for the day, he followed Max out to the entryway of the kingdom. The two soon froze in mid step as they opened the makeshift door outside, neither expecting the sight before them. At least forty felines had gathered up outside forming a line from the entrance up and around the block. Several had scarves around their necks, others wearing torn wool stitched up beanies over their ears to keep their body heat in. The lemur and tabby just stared at the formal line of strays that stood before them, Julien looking back into the warehouse,

"Ahem Oh Mother Cat please come here for a minute." He said, the black feline. She stood up and lazily rubbed her eyes open as she approached the two standing outside. Upon discovering the sight the two had already, she nervously looked at Julien and Max.

"Heh um...they may have followed my kids and me..." Julien groaned and slapped a paw over his eyes,

"Oh Sky Spirits you have to be kidding me!" The mother uneasily looked at Max who could only stare at the line of other strays patiently awaiting entrance into the home they'd furnished from a mere empty shack.

He turned to the lemur, "Julien What are we gonna do! We can't send away all of these cats, they'll riot!" The lemur king slowly pulled his paw down over his face, pulling his muzzle open as he tried to think. Max was right, if they tried to keep out all these cats, they'd group rush the building and overthrow the kingdom. If it was one thing the lemur was sure of, it would be the strength one had in numbers as he had back in his island Madagascar.

He looked at Max for a sec and then a light bulb managed to pop on in his head.

"I am having a very brilliant and kingly thought!" Running back into the warehouse as the mother cat and the yellow tabby stood in confusion, Julien quickly gathered a load of paper, a cardboard box and several crayons. Running back outside, the lemur set up a rather businesslike desk next to Max and the entrance. Springing back toward the large crowd of shivering cats standing in the snow, he put his paws to his muzzle to project,

"ATTENTION KITTIES! I AM KING JULIEN, RULER OF THIS KINGDOM, IF YOU WISH TO RESIDE HERE AND BE WARM AND SAFE FROM DANGER PLEASE SIGN YOUR NAME AT THE DESK ONE AT A TIME! BY SIGNING YOU ARE HERBY OFFERING YOURSELVES AS MY LOYAL SUBJECTS WHOM I SHALL RULE OVER AND CARE FOR, ALL WHO DO NOT AGREE MAY REMAIN OUTSIDE AND FREEZE TO DEATH!"

Max raised an eyebrow at the lemur's addressing of the cats, but as he looked upon the crowd, he could see many faces lighting up and nodding in agreement of the lemur's turned to Julien,

"Wow, good thinking there." Giving the lemur a pat on the back as they started seeing cats one by one stepping up and signing their name on the sheets of white paper with the crayons. Julien grinned,

"Yeah, my old subject Maurice was a lawyer." He whispered as they watched the newcomers approach the doorway, Julien and Max smiled and waved them inside as soon as they'd signed the paper. Within several minutes all the once frozen cats were able to get inside, Julien and Max closing the door behind them to shut out the unwanted weather. Julien quickly hopped to the top of his throne, mostly in order to keep anyone else off it, secondly so he could direct the attention of everyone now inside his home he'd opened up to them.

"Ahem, will everyone please take a seat where you are being right now." He watched in mild amusement as the rows and rows of cats lowered themselves to the floor, all maintaining their gaze on the lemur in the high seated throne above sat back in his seat and brought his fingertips together, elbows resting on the armrests.

"Now, you have all willingly signed over your allegiance to me, King Julien. As your king I am here to keep all of you safe and well fed but in return you must do what is asked of you in order to keep this opportunity available to each and every one of you. Nod if you understand me." A sea of heads leaned forward and back, Julien grinned, he, in the span of only minutes ha developed a brand new thriving kingdom, just as his previous one in Madagascar, only no other lemurs. One female cat stood up in the crowd,

"How are we supposed to know you'll keep us safe? None of the humans have looked out for any of us, why will you?" Julien leaned back in his throne, eyes narrowing slightly at the girl, causing her to flinch significantly.

"Ahem, For all of you to be in safety here, you will have to trust in me, you're king. Do that and I shall do my part in protecting you all, agreed?" He opened it up to the whole crowd who began much chattering amongst themselves. The mother feline hopped up next to Julien's throne, leaning on his side of the chair,"You think this will work? I don't want my kids getting hurt in this mess." Julien put a finger to his lips with a shushing breath as he ran a paw over the mother's face and ear."Don't worry, it will all go swimmingly." "So you have a plan?" He smiled at her question,

"Even better, I have confidence!" He said with excitement as he prepared for his next announcement to the group below,

"First things first while you are all here, obviously we will need to gather more food and so to do that, you must follow me, your king, to the place of where de humans keep de food." Getting off the chair, the lemur hopped down to the main floor in front of all the cats. "Hmm lets see, who to pick, who here is de strongest?" Several buff cats approached in front, two gray tabbies and one orange striped feline without a tail. Julien nodded and looked around,

"Okay good, now I am needing several very thin helpers." The slimmest of the crowd feebly made their way to the front next to the strong felines, using them as supports to hold themselves up.

"Wonderful, err on a side note you may wanna try to be eating more...just a suggestion, anyway! Now with you who have come forth, we will head to the human store for our necessities!" The lemur gleefully said, clapping his paws together and leading the pack out the front door.

"WAIT!" A voice called out, Julien held up a paw and turned to face a single small kit standing up in the middle of the crowd,

"What are the rest of us supposed to do here while ur gone?" Julien put a paw to his mouth as he quickly tried to come up with a job for them,

"Ah you subjects will be given duty of security, keep things under control while we are being away! Understand?" The group simultaneously nodded. Julien couldn't help but smile at what he'd created, with so many subjects at his very whim and paw, he could begin his royal parties once again, this time, to a whole new level. Grinning, the lemur led the newly developed team of gatherers onward out of the warehouse and towards the corner store. As soon as they had reached the shop, there was an issue. Julien climbed up to his usual entry point to find the door had been sealed shut somehow. One of the cat's looked at him,

"What's going on?" Julien groaned in frustration and difficulty as he attempted again to lift up the door,

"Gah it is being no use, the door is locked shut, we need another way into de human store." As if a possible godsend, the lemur turned to see one of the strong feline's flick out a claw and begin tracing a hole into the skylight of the building.

_That works too..._

Once the hole was cut open, two of the cats lifted the glass out of the window, trying to keep it from breaking. Julien watched nervously as the group began one at a time climbing down into the store until it was his turn. He gulped and looked around before hopping into the hole and down into the store.

"Everyone, stay where you are, you're king needs to decide what we will be taking." He looked around at the aisles of products before them, the endless possibilities. Taking a paw and pointing to the canned food, both tuna fish, cat food and canned fruit, Julien directed his team to begin lifting the items off the shelves one at a time in an orderly fashion down to the floor where the skinny felines ran and ripped off bags to fill to their hearts content.

"De humans will know we've been here so take it all, we can't come back after this." Julien said with small amounts of disappointment in his voice.

"Why not? This is perfect right here." Julien groaned and jerked a finger pointing up to the hole in the skylight of the store, the feline bit his lip,

"Heh, oops."

"Just be getting it done."

After the charades of having to lift several bags of "groceries" out of the small window, the team climbed out and down to the snowy abandoned roads, the blizzard had accumulated several more inches of snow since the day before, now making it even harder to wade through the walls of fluffy frozen water. Telling one young cat to move to the front of the group and dig a tunnel for them, Julien led the tired starving workers back to the large homestead with bags of food for them and everyone else. Finally being able to close the door behind everyone, Julien gasped in exhaustion as he fell to the floor, the black mother cat rushing over to get him to his feet.

"Are you okay?" The lemur could barely respond, only able to find the strength to straighten his crown before collapsing in her paws. She hoisted him to his feet and after several attempts, carried the lemur bridal style back to his throne. He laid his head back, giving the mother cat a pat on the shoulder as thanks for helping him in his tired state. Max came up next to his side,

"Hey so did you guys get alotta food?" Julien shut his eyes and nodded, using a paw to lift his head back up to view everyone.

"Because of the helpfulness of those who came along, they will be receiving rest and relaxing while de others who were here must begin making our dinner. I have a personal matter to be tending to so don't be asking me anything right now okay?" Several groaned were heard through the crowd as the cats began setting up places to eat the food while others worked on getting the cans open and fires stoked for cooking. Max watched the ring tailed mammal climb down the ladder and head into the royal living quarters, this consisted of a large cardboard box filled with pillows and strung about with Christmas lights powered by a car battery. Julien went inside and closed the cloth flap that covered the entryway, Max noticed however, the lemur seemed to be limping slightly. As he let his eyes trail over the route his assistant/king had taken toward the box, Max could see small trickle spots of red liquid along the cement floor.

_Was Julien okay? _He crept up on the flap and peeled back the cloth a bit to get an eye inside.

Taking a seat on the large pillow, the lemur groaned and hissed with held in pain as he pulled his left leg toward himself. From what Max could see, the lemur had a large cut on the inside of his right shin. Julien spread some of the surrounding fur on his leg and leaned in, beginning to softly suck out some of the remaining blood that had not yet clotted the wound shut. It was almost uncomfortable to watch the lemur deal with the injury, seeing him pull back and sigh, his open mouth gleaming with bloodstained teeth, looking as if he'd just mauled something to death. Julien sniffled and brushed at his muzzle with his paws, trying to brush off the blood on his furry lips and around his nose. Max gulped before knocking on the door and popping his head in, "Um hey are you alright?" "Julien winced and shut his eyes tight as he taped his leg up. His mother use to show him how to bandage himself when he'd come in from playing with the other lemurs and getting hurt. He'd had Maurice aid him for so long after that, it had taken him a while to actually remember how to even cover a wound properly. Julien sighed, He missed Maurice and Mort more then he'd first been willing to admit and with this new kingdom underway, he'd noticed how different he'd become since leaving the zoo. He'd hated admit that those two lemurs had not just been pushovers for his bidding, but they'd always been there when he'd actually gotten hurt and needed help.

As had the penguins...Julien growled slightly at that last piece of his thought. How dare that leader bird think he was not what he'd always claimed to be? Sure at the zoo it had been much more easy going and simple, but the fact still remained, he was a lemur finally left his personal mind dwelling and looked over at Max, the battered yellow tabby adjoining him while he was hurt. He was actually doing what a proper aye aye was to be doing, which was looking after his king.

"Oh hello Max, no I am being fine, I just tripped on something and scratched myself on our way back." He said, Max nodded. Julien looked at the wall for a moment, Max could see the little cogs and wheels turning in the lemur's head as he dwelled on a certain thought that seemed to be staying with him. Julien looked to Max,

"Hey I am having an idea, after our dinner, we should go to the zoo." Max tilted his head,

"To see the penguins?"

"Um well you can if you are wanting but I have someone else I need to see." The cat nodded his head and helped Julien, acting as a crutch for the lemur king now feline king. The mother cat stood outside the doorway as they came out into the open warehouse.

"Hey I noticed you were bleeding, are you alright?" Julien nodded. He didn't feel the need to go into details at this point, the lemur merely watched as the cats and kittens bustled about setting up for the evening meal. After about a half hour, dinner was served, a large buffet style setting was laid out for the cats and single lemur. Everyone sat down and stared hungrily at the meal before them, one began reaching out to grab something but Julien spotted him.

"STOP!" The cat froze in place reaching into the table looking at the lemur with a napkin tuck around his neck as a bib.

"We are to be thanking zee Sky Spirits for this food before us!" Ushering everyone to join paws, the lemur led them in a small prayer before digging into his own personal pate of different fruits, signaling to everyone they may begin feasting.

After dinner, Max told the mother cat they would be back in a while and if anything were to happen, wait for them to return. She agreed and kept a lookout as the two founders of the kingdom bundled up with scarves and hats over their ears. Julien opened the cardboard flap door, looking back at the mother cat as Max went out,

"Don't be gone too long okay?" She called out to him. Julien blushed slightly and waved as he closed the door behind them. The black furred feline sighed and headed back to the main area where most of the felines laid on anything comfortable as they let their plump bellies rest comfortably. Sitting next to her children who continued to play with one another, she soon caught one of the cats in the back area of the warehouse,

Just staring at her kittens, with a scheming look on his face.

border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border bord.

A/N, Wow that was a long chapter, I did have a bit of trouble finding where to start but after a while of hearing ideas and sifting through what felt like it would work, I was able to get going with this chapter. Thank you for all the ideas so far and I hope to keep using them as they come in, remember I am more then willing to use anything you come up with as long as you believe it will fit in the story. If you please continue to review this story I would greatly appreciate it and thank you all for your support so far! Next chapter will include more heartfelt things as I see them form! Thank you!


	5. Should have stayed away

The clicking sound of chattering teeth was heard from the two mammals as they traveled away from the warehouse, heading for the zoo. Julien did his best not to complain but every few minutes he felt it necessary to inform the feline beside him that his limbs were aching.

"I know Julien but we can't stop here, we'll freeze in place if we do." The cat said, illustrating this when he began shivering harder,

"Yes I am knowing this but I am so very tired..." Julien said in a moan as they trudged forth through the deep snow, it wasn't unrealistic how exhausted the poor lemur was, he'd been digging through snow earlier just to get back to the kingdom and now was having to work even harder with the new snow on the ground. Max tried to keep the lemur's spirits up although he too was feeling fatigued.

"You know, the faster we get there, the quicker you can see your lady friend Marlene."

"Urgh way to make me feel the guilty trip! Alright let's go." He sighed and began leaping up into the hoods of cars, less snow seemed to have built up along the vehicles, making it a much easier way to proceed. Max followed close behind him as they're cold and tired feet took them closer and closer to the New York City Zoo.

Back in the zoo, Marlene snoozed away in her habitat comfortably when she heard a voice calling into her cave.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" The otter sleepily raised her head as the voiced called out again faintly. From where she laid in her private living space, she couldn't make out the voice that was calling out into her den. Standing up and lazily slinking to the front entrance, the otter yawned and tried to call back to the voice.

"Uh Hi who's there?"

"Hello?"

"Yeah Hi I said WHO'S THERE?" She said bringing her paws to her muzzle as she approached the frozen entrance. The otter rubbed her eyes as she tried to make out who was standing in her doorway. From what she could see, it was merely a silhouette so far, a shadow and a rather large one at that.

"Um hello?" She said nervously, most of her visitors either came in without knocking or were loud enough to give away who they were. Marlene came closer to the figure, the figure came into view, forcing a small gasp out of the tired otter.

"Hello there madame." Spoke a very buff male otter wearing a scarf around his neck, a cap on his head as well. Marlene took in the sight before her for a moment, she'd never even seen another male otter near this place and one in such very...

...very good shape. The dazed Marlene quickly shook her head and tried to respond back to the stranger standing before her.

"Oh um..Hi, who are you?"

"My name, is Antonio. I am not meaning to bother you miss, but I was hoping you may know of some place I may rest my tired feet, I have been searching for shelter for many nights and many days now with no success." He replied in a soft Spanish accent, earning an unexpected mental sigh from the female otter standing in front of him. Her eyes drifted over to the strap across his chest that connected to a guitar resting on his back.

_You're kidding me right _Her mind spoke to her as she took in every inch of the mammal before her.

"Um yeah you should come inside and dry yourself off, its freezing out there." She said, shivering for good measure, He smiled and gave a small nod, raising a paw for her to lead the way, Marlene bit her lip slightly and took his paw and led him deeper into her dwelling. Her cheeks began turning a fine shade of red as they walked together down toward her living space, her heart seemed to take a faster pace with every few steps they made toward her homestead, she blew out a silent deep breath out of the corner of her mouth.

_This is not what I expected at this hour _Though she could not lie to herself, she wasn't complaining either.

Max and Julien both reached the gate of the city zoo completely out of breath, they'd decided in order to keep their stamina up they would treat the journey as a game of chase, keeping things fun and getting there all the sooner. The cat put his paws on his thighs to support himself as he struggled for air, his tired lungs despising the cold oxygen but taking it in little bits at a time. To his right, Julien full on flopped into the snow, his body sinking into the snow bank several inches. Max sighed and pulled him up and out by his tail, earning an unhappy reply from the lemur,

"Hey Hey Hey! What am I always to be telling you? No pulling of the tail!" He scolded the feline who sighed and shook his head. They popped into the zoo entrance gates and began taking a small tour of the familiar area, Julien first headed for his old habitat to see his two loyal subjects Maurice and Mort while Max ventured toward the penguin's home. Julien hopped up and over the fence and straight into the bouncy, sending the two once asleep lemurs up into the air.

"Honeys I'm home! Well sorta kinda not really so much." He announced, Maurice and Mort instantly awake from this familiar voice.

Maurice, "Your Majesty! You're back!" He said excitedly, not pausing to hop next to his long time friend for a hug which the ringtailed lemur graciously accepted, Mort's eyes grew to immense size as he saw his king standing before him once again. Julien braced for the small mouse lemur to make a leap for his royal feet, but was surprised when little lemur merely walked up next to him and smiled, pointing at his feet.

"It is being too freezy cold to touch king Julien's feet." He said with a small smile, Julien couldn't help but give one as well, the small lemur remembered how his king had full on snapped when the rats had stepped on his feet in the hockey match they had played. He patted the small lemur on the head, it had been so long since the ringtail had even seen the one he'd dubbed "so painfully annoying" he'd found himself actually missing the little guy a small tiny bit that to anyone else's knowledge did not exist. He turned to his loyal aye aye Maurice who he could see was full of questions for him, the lemur held up a paw however.

"Hold you're questions Maurice, I am not being here for long, I am just being a tourist here."

"You mean "Visiting"?"

"Yeah dat too."

"Well, why can't you stay? I'm sure we could talk to the penguins and find a way to end this little banishment thing easy." This...had been the wrong thing to bring up for Maurice, the lemur king's face suddenly darkened as he turned his head to glare at the penguin habitat.

"I will not be discussing terms with that insolent bird! Why should I beg to come back here when I have all I want over in my new kingdom?" He asked in a rhetorical sense. Maurice cocked his head,

"New kingdom? We didn't hear anything about that."Julien's emotions soon brightened as his mind left the penguins,

"Oh you will have to be seeing it Maurice! I have like fifty new subjects to rule over and tell them what to do! And its in this gigantic building thing that's like eighty times bigger den this one!" He said with excitement to his former aye aye, Maurice tried to keep his face happy, but he felt sadness creeping up inside his chest. The whole plan with making Julien live on the street was just to humble him a bit, not make him leave was about to say something when the tall lemur cut him off,

"Anyway I am having to go now, I have to see Marlene." He said, eagerly looking toward the otter habitat from over the fence. Maurice sighed,

"So you, won't be coming back then?" Julien thought for a second before shaking his head,

"Nah I am not thinking so." Mort, upon hearing this, immediately found his large eyes filling with tears beginning to pour out at a fast rate as he suddenly rushed off away from the two of them. Maurice looked at the mouse lemur run off and then back at Julien, he gave a deep sigh but gave his longtime lemur friend another hug which the tall lemur returned, patting his former aye aye on the back.

"Maurice do not be being sad, you can come stay with me when the snow is melted okay?" He said down to the lemur as he patted his back. Maurice sniffled a bit and nodded, giving his king a final smile before he left back to his new home.

"Okay but you have to promise after spring comes you'll be back." Julien smiled at him,

"I will be coming back." He said with a final pat on the back before turning his back and heading for the fence, Maurice watched him go, hoping he would see his friend sooner than the first spring as he'd heavy steps, he headed off to go console Mort who at this point would be near hysterical about Julien's decision to stay away.

Julien bore a smile of true happiness as he neared the otter's den, hopping over the gate and skating across the frozen pond to her doorway. From the entryway he could see a small light glowing in the deepest part of the cave, beaming against the walls. A shiver of nervousness and attraction chilled the lemur slightly deeper then the outside temperature had managed to, tonight he would make an announcement that he would accept her in the paws of courting. Though she kept it reasonably calm, the lemur knew her feelings for her were secretly returned by the one he loved.

He approached what seemed to be a dark curtain in front of her living area, most of the time it had been pushed to the side, unnoticed by the visitors of her humble abode. The candle seemed to gleam behind the fabric, illuminating the room's objects into vibrant still and moving shadows. King Julien came nearer when he suddenly heard Marlene giggle,

it was coming from behind the curtain, a smooth look washed over the lemur as he heard his crush's laugh, just that mere sound enticing him to draw back the curtain and reveal his presence. He wished to know the perfect moment however, in having to do so, the lemur lifted a paw and hooked a side of the curtain ever so slightly to allow his eye to peek through to see his soon to be love.

As his eye scanned the room though, his view described something very unlike what he had planned to see in the room.

Marlene sat on her stone bed currently laughing as from what his vision could tell, at another otter..

A large otter holding a guitar,

...A male.

The lemur king's eye widened as he took in this stranger, this man currently playing his guitar in what sounded much like a romantic song. Julien's peeking eye glared darkly, his orange and yellow eyes beginning to see red. He had every urge now to throw back the curtain, grab the seducer and toss him into the freezing snow, yes that's what he would do, what he had to do in order to save Marlene's heart for his own. As his muscles tensed, his paw's grip on the fabric grew tighter and tighter. His ears lowered back and a deadly stare began nearly burning through the material,

But then, he saw Marlene again.

She's...

She's happy, actually, truly happy listening to that stranger. He continued to play, showing off his learned skill of the instrument for her, giving little increments of singing in certain parts of the song. It was hard to watch this...commoner do this to the one he carried such an affection for, no one was allowed to do that but him, no one. It got worse however, Julien soon took his eyes off the male and turned his focus back to Marlene,

He saw the look in her eyes.

_Affectionate_

Julien pulled himself back a bit, his eyes beginning to widen,

_No..._

_This isn't_

_This cannot be_

_Please  
_

_Please oh please sky spirits don't let this be true! _The lemur suddenly looked toward the ceiling, wrapping his paws together and silently pleading with those he prayed to each and every night. A tight constraint locked itself around his heart as he hid from the two otters_. _He backed several feet from the curtain, holding his head in his paws, his fervent curiosity pulling his eyes up toward the glowing curtain one last time.

The shadow of the male otter set down the guitar and advanced on where Marlene was sitting.

He leaned in and kissed her.

She hadn't made any attempt to leave, to push him away...

She'd enjoyed it...

The lemur gasped and fell to his knees, his hand accidentally knocking the curtain to the side. Both Marlene and the other otter immediately sat up and looked where Julien had fallen down, Marlene bore an expression of shock and surprise as she saw the ringtail in front of her.

"*gasp* Julien?" The lemur didn't move for a moment, not looking at either of them, then gradually got to his feet, his back turned to them. Marlene stood up while the other otter sat still in surprise at the lemur's unexpected arrival.

"Julien...I..I didn't know you were.." She couldn't finish the sentence as she looked at the lemur's posture, his shoulders slumped, his head hung forward with his naturally upward tail limp on the ground now. Embarrassment and regret soon pooled into the young otter's heart as she looked at him,

he'd seen them together, he'd seen everything.

The lemur, with no other option in his mind, decided to leave right that minute. He began dragging his tail down out of the cave's long hallway as Marlene chased after him,

"Julien wait! Please, I can explain, okay I can't but-" She stammered as the heartbroken lemur continued his direction out towards the doorway. She then saw his hurt leg as it dragged alongside the other, the wound appeared to have just recently happened, it wasn't bandaged or anything. He limped determinedly, just trying to leave as sat as his weak legs could carry him. Marlene got up next to him and grabbed onto his right paw to slow him down, Julien's demeanor changed drastically as she did this. The ringtailed lemur wrenched his paw free and snarled viciously her, his teeth bared, ears back and a look in his eyes of deep anger at her. Marlene jumped back against the wall, allowing him to proceed on outside and back into the cold. He took one final look at her, his expression softening into one she hated at that moment.

Betrayed.

He turned his back to her and made it out into the zoo pathway. Marlene had nothing she could yell to him, nothing she could say,

She'd hurt him, badly. The female otter's head sank as she watched him go, her voice cut off by the lump forming in her throat. Slowly, she turned back and headed for her room, her eyes welling up already, several teardrops falling down her cheeks. Reaching the living space, she looked at the otter sitting on the bed with his guitar on his back once more, an expression of puzzlement on his face.

She sniffled slightly, "I think you should go." The male otter sighed,

"But my dear we were starting to have such a good-"

"GO! NOW!" She shouted, thrusting a finger towards the entrance. The Spanish otter sighed once more and put on his scarf and hat, got up and made his way outside. Marlene slumped onto her bed, her body shaking, nose dribbling slightly as tears rained down her furry cheeks, dampening the hair flat to her skin underneath.

_What have I done?_

Max leaned back in laughter as he and three of the penguins sat at the table in a card game while Private stood watch at the periscope.

"That's not fair, I've never had wings!" He retaliated, slamming another card on the table. Kowalski gave a smug grin as she shuffled his cards while Rico continuously attempted to earn a peek at his leader's cards, earning him a very strongly laid smack on the side of the beak.

"Rico I'm not telling you again!" The scarred bird giggled guiltily and returned his focus to his own few cards he held onto. Private groaned to himself, wanting to get in on the fun while their old friend was still around, he continued to scan the perimeter when his eyes caught sight of the lemur,

"Hey Max, I think Julien's leaving already."

"What? We just got here!" He said, getting up from the table and coming up next to Private to look into the periscope. The lemur seemed to be barely able to move, wether it was a physically impairment or something was troubling him, something serious.

"He looks really bad, what the heck happened?" Skipper gave a whistle,

"Topside boys, find out what's the ringtail's little problem!" He and the four birds followed by Max went up the ladder and out the fishbowl hatch to the surface. Skating across the ice and through the fence bars, the five got to Julien's position. Upon reaching him, the four saw a side of the lemur they had only seen a glimpse of before, when they'd accidentally destroyed the lemur robot that had been for king Julien to interact with, his demeanor now bore a deeper pain than that however.

Private, " Julien, where are you going?"The lemur kept his eyes on the zoo gates,

"Home." He mumbled. Skipper looked the lemur up and down for a sec,"Hey what's the big deal, I thought you were gonna see Marlene." The lemur's lip quivered as he tried to reply.

"I...I..did." He forced out shakily before collapsing in the snow. Private's eye caught Julien's injury,

"Skipper, Julien's leg's hurt, he needs medical attention!" Skipper looked and saw the gash on the lemur's shin,

"affirmative, Ringtail you need to get bandaged up so come down with us to the HQ for a moment ok? You can leave after we're done." He looked for any signs this was getting through to the mammal, who continued to keep from meeting any of their gazes, he nodded once and followed the birds own into their home. The lemur sat against the wall as Kowalski applied a bandage wrap to his leg, Max sitting by his side trying to get the lemur to speak about what had gotten him so very down and distant. He only shook his head and covered his eyes with his paws.

Private pulled Skipper aside and whispered in his ear a way how to get them home again, Skipper raised a brow and then agreed with the young cadet.

"Kowalski, finish up that wrap and come over here, I need you're instructing abilities, Rico grab the Snow Tracks over there in the corner!" He ordered, looking back at the slumped down lemur.

"Not to worry Ringtail, we'll have you back home before you know it." He said before turning and walking back to the Penguin mobile as Rico brought the snow tracks over and began slipping them over the wheels of the car. Within a half hour, the lemur and the feline sat in the backseat of the pink car as Skipper and Rico climbed in the front.

"Private, keep an eye on the cards while we're gone." He said, his eyes narrowing in suspicion at Kowalski, who's beak dropped open and then crossed his wings,

"Agh, I never cheated the entire game!"

"Suure Kowalski, everyone's just a natural at the games I teach them...eyes focused Private!" and with that, they headed out into the blizzard blasted streets of New York City.

With the modified car it took them only moments to find the warehouse and reach the front entrance. Skipper watched as Max took Julien with an arm around his neck to support him out of the car and into the warehouse, giving a small wave to the penguins as they went in, seeing the birds speed off back to their own residence to get out of the cold. Max carried the lemur to his private quarters and helped him lay down on the large pillow he'd been one previously, Julien let out an exhausted sigh as he looked at the cat who brought him in. Opening his mouth, waiting for the knot in his throat to dissipate so he could speak, the gray mammal's eyes focused on Max's.

" Max." Was all he could get out before feeling his throat seize up again. Max studied Julien's entire body language, thinking back to how excited he'd been to see this woman he knew and how he appeared at this moment. Max put the pieces together and formed a conclusion,

"So...did she say no?"

"...Not really." Max frowned in confusion, granted he was the last to say he understood women, but this wasn't making sense to him how one girl could have caused so much damage to a person as consistently positive as Julien was, seeing him like this was hard, he needed to give the lemur some space, better yet, someone he could really talk to. He patted Julien on the shoulder and went to go get the mother cat. While he was gone, Julien looked in the mirror he'd brought in when he'd decorated the living space, staring at his reflection. He took off his crown and set it on his lap, lightly pawing through the feathery leaves that donned it. The black feline drew back the cloth door slightly and poked her head in, looking down at Julien with his back to her, holding his crown. She could already feel the sadness in the air of the room as she entered, taking gentle quiet steps toward him.

"Hey." She said, taking a paw and brushing it against the lemur's cheek and down the back of his neck as she sat facing him. He looked at her and then back down at his crown. The feline read his expression and mannerisms, he didn't need to say a word, his posture said everything to her. The mother gently laid her paws on his shoulders, slowly wrapping him into a hug, Julien weakly brought his paws up to hold her as he buried his face in her shoulder, his body shivering as he began to cry, wetting her fur with his salty tears but she paid no mind to that, wrapping a paw around the back of his head to help him feel safe and able to release his pain from inside himself.

"Sshh, hey hey its okay." She whispered, rocking back and forth with the lemur who held onto her as if afraid to let go. He raised his head from her shoulder and rubbed his eyes as he sniffled, She brushed his cheeks dry with her fluffy black tail. He laid his head back into the cat's shoulder and sobbed even harder. This was bringing soft tears to the cat's own eyes to see him so distraught and pained. She stayed with the lemur until he'd finally tired himself out and fallen asleep, Getting up and gently laying some covers on the mammal king, the mother cat silently made her exit from the quarters. Max sat outside with the kittens all sleeping soundly along with the rest of the group of felines in the large warehouse, he saw the mother come out and head toward her kids and him,

"Hey, so what happened?" The mother cat sighed,

"That Marlene he was so head over heels for, she cheated on him."Max looked down for a moment,

"How...did he tell you?"

"He didn't have to Hun, I saw that look in his eyes, you can't hide that. My babies told me I had the same one cast on my face when my man ran off with a fancy Persian." She said with a sigh staring down at the little snoozing balls of fur clumped in a close pile together. Max gulped and looked over at the black cat's face who'd fallen a bit,

"Well...what do we do now?" He asked, needing some kind of way to resolve this state his king was in, he needed to get him back to his regular self so he could keep everything under control here before anything rash happened. The mother cat's expression grew more and more intense, an anger suddenly building inside her, she looked at Max.

"First thing in the morning, you show me how to get to the zoo." Max's eyes widened and he nervously nodded to the feline.

"what are you gonna do?"He asked, the black feline sat on her haunches and flicked open her claws like stiletto knives as she looked at her paw.

"I guess we'll know when I get back won't we?" She said in dark voice.

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A/N, gaaah soo much intensity! lol Don't know how many of you expected that in this chapter, at first I wasn't planning to use Antonio in this story, but honestly I feel he's helped in this chapter for the worse it seems. Please keep your reviews coming and ideas if you wish for me to use them, I gladly accept all thoughts and wishes!


	6. So help me

A/N, I'm really happy with all of your feedback and reviews everyone has contributed to this piece, each chapter brings out something different for me an that is in itself exciting because I get to allow my ideas on these characters evolve. If you want something to be seen in this story, please speak up now, tell me your ideas and I will work with them to the best f my ability, but I cannot if you don't take the first step, with that let us begin chapter 6.

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Max looked around the warehouse at all the activity that seemed to buzz about the building, several of the subjects were setting up their own personal homes from gathered supplies during the sunny day they'd been blessed with, a nice break from the cold gray misery they'd been shielded from in the past few days. Their construction was nothing fancy, a few cardboard boxes, some stringed up rags, one home had a few pieces of broken wood taped into a doorway into the owner's box. Comparing it to he and Julien's work, well...you couldn't, it was something he actually felt proud of, the well put in thought and use of scarce materials had fashioned the feline and the lemur an obviously dominating housing in the warehouse.

The skinny tabby looked at the closed door where Julien was sleeping, he never seemed to wake up before the feline, though this time the yellow cat knew to just leave him be for now. He didn't need to be bothered if nothing was going on, though secretly he knew something was. When he had awoke that morning, he'd opened his eyes to see the mother cat staring straight into his barely focused orbs, a look of slipping patience on her face, somewhat spooking the feline as he jolted awake.

"How do I get to the zoo?"

Max left not hesitation in giving her proper directions, she asked him to stay by her children while she was gone. When he'd began to tell her he had certain morning duties to attend to, she'd let him in on something rather unsettling about a certain resident within the warehouse. From what she'd been able to tell, a gray spotted tabby with a gash on his muzzle was consistently eyeballing her children whenever given the chance. She knew not what it meant but from when she was able to catch him staring at them, it wasn't a good idea to leave them alone. The yellow cat couldn't think of what to say other then telling her he would watch over the children while she was away. She smiled and gave a small hug to him before turning her back and marching out the front door. He directed his attention to the little bundles of fur all snoozing quietly, watching them toss and turn in their slumber. Within a few minutes one of them was awake. She looked up at Max who smiled and waved down to her, she sat back and yawned rubbing her eyes with her paw.

"*yawn* where's my mom?"

"Oh she just went out for some time to herself, she'll be back soon." Max looked at the young girl, trying to give a comforting look of knowing her mother would be back soon, but in his min honestly he had no idea when the mother would be back to tend to her children, in the meantime, he needed to look after them as his responsibility. The yellow cat could only smile and await for the others to awake, he was a bit hungry himself, so he decided to see if the kids could use a bit of food in their stomachs as well. In a single filed line behind the yellow battered cat, the children once they had awoke, followed Max into the makeshift kitchen where the food supply was, awaiting him to set them up some breakfast.

In the lemur's Private quarters, king Julien was doing rather poorly. The lemur king thrashed in his sleep numerously, unable to stop calling out Marlene's name, his subconscious yelling at her as he mentally stood toe to toe with the female otter.

_Marlene Why? Why would you betray me like this? _

_The otter backed around the edge of the wall of her cave as she faced him, the lemur looking at her with pleading anxiety in his eyes, begging for it all to have just been a dream, though he knew for a fact he was already in too deep for this to have been an illusion. _

_"I I don't know, Antonio just came out of nowhere and wanted to stay with me, please I didn't think it would go so-" The lemur whipped around ferociously, _

_"OH! You did not know? You did not think this stranger would act like this to you? A beautiful lady otter who can make de jaws drop on anyone in de zoo! You didn't think he was thinking that?" The lemur yelled at her, his anger growing gradually as he stayed before her, the gravity of the situation getting to his nerves. Marlene bit her lip an hung her head, _

_"Julien, he was...he was everything I'd ever dreamed of, what was I supposed to do?" The lemur stood livid before her, his jaw open as his mind processed the words that had poured out of her mouth like toxic death before his royal ears. The lemur's eyes darkened, _

_"You could have done as I would have you for Marlene! I would have left, I would have run away! I would have kept the..."other" from going too far with their wants! But you didn't, you let him kiss you! You LET HIM EMBRACE YOU!" He roared, his unseen rage finally overwhelming him, the otter stood terrified against the wall as the lemur felt his anger toppling his senses. Julien could barely face her at this point, his back turning to the otter, _

_"I was supposed to be trusting you nows I can't even be looking at you." He shuddered as he spoke, Marlene's hurt expression turned toward one of anger, _

_"Then go! I can always stay with a man who truly knows how to win me over!" Julien's face turned to a rather evil grin, _

_"Oh well I'm hoping you aren't thinking to be going back to dat Antonio guy." _

_"WHY!" _

_"Because he's dead." Marlene's eyes grew huge as she felt horror building in her chest, _

_"He...he's what?"Julien's eyes flashed at her dangerously as he replied, _

_"You're special boyfriend would've been okay if he'd known how to cross de street chasing after your voice." Marlene gasped and looked at the lemur in confusion, _

_"But I..I didn't call to him."_

_"Nope, I used my really boss impressions." The otter put her paws to her face in shock at the lemur. She could barely see straight from the various emotions flying through her head, confusion anger, worry and disgust. She backed away from him slowly, _

_"You...you stay away from me, don't you every come back here."_

Julien gasped and rolled off his pillow, his body thumping to the ground bringing him to within several seconds. For a minute he just lay on his stomach, muzzle on the cold concrete floor, his arms laying uselessly at his sides_. _

_What in the world had that been? _He shook himself slightly, still not bothering to move when his eyes met a familiar small black furry face. The kitten mewed and then brushed his body against Julien's face, causing the lemur's nose to twitch and wiggle, forcing him to sit up and cross his legs. He picked up the kitten who smiled up at him,

"Why you still sleeping?" he asked the lemur who rolled over on his back, holding the kitten up in the air with his feet rocking the kitten back and forth smoothly. Julien tried to put a weak smile to his muzzle as he looked at the happy little child he held,

"Because I needed to be." He said, bringing out small breaks of laughter from the young kitten as he swung him around in the air slowly, giving the sensation of flying, something the lemur found himself wishing to do quite often. He enjoyed the feeling of moving through the air as he leaped from tree to tree, the wind in his fur, the brief gap between the safety of something to hold onto and then nothing but your trust that you would make it to the other destination. He grinned more as he thought of it, his mind wandering slightly as the child stay held in his feet. Finally he rocked back upwards and onto his rump as he set the child down, turning and picking up his crown.

"Why do you wear that funny hat?" Julien's eyes widened,

"De crown isn't funny! It gives off my my power and sense of leadership." He said defensively, the kitten tilted his head,

"Really?" Julien nodded. The black furred youngling looked at it in question as he reached with a paw to attempt to touch it. The lemur uneasily leaned back for a moment, not really wanting any other paws on his royal headpiece but himself, though looking into the kitten's eyes, he sighed and leaned forward, allowing the playful one to swipe and jump at the leaves it had adorning it. The cat playfully batted at the crown for a few more seconds and then rested back on his back paws, staring up at the lemur.

"Are we gonna stay with you forever?" Julien had not been ready for the question, his eyes widening for a moment and then diverting off to some far end of the room as he took in this feline's pondering thought.

"I am not being sure..." Just then Max's head popped in through the curtain door,"Oh thank my tail! There you are! Sorry Julien, I kinda let him outta my sight, didn't mean for em to bother you." Julien yawned and nodded,

"Its not being a problem but yes you should be going back with your family." He said picking up the kitten and handing him over to Max, the black fuzzball smiled and waved over Max's shoulder as they left the lemur's quarters. Julien's smile soon left as his mind returned to thoughts of what had happened yesterday, he sat back atop of his pillow, laying back down and soon feeling the depression in himself rising back to its previous state the evening before.

_Sky Spirits you must be helping me through dis_

Over several streets and blocks, The mother cat had reached the zoo gates. She eyed the area for everything that might be watching her, the last thing she needed was to be trapped or attacked_, _her children weren't old enough to be on their own just yet, she had a responsibility to them she couldn't lose now. Slipping into the fence underneath the bushes, she looked around at the different habitats in the area, how was she supposed to find this woman in this huge area. Looking to the kangaroo habitat, she hopped onto the fence and called down to the animal below her,

"Scuse me, I'm trying to find someone." Joey the kangaroo looked up,

"Oye, what be ye business up in my habitat mate? Joey don't like visitors!" He yelled in an Australian accent up to the cat, She frowned down at him,

"I'm just looking for a certain person-"

"Well ye ain't gonna find em up my tree mate! Get on with ya now!" He said giving a rude shooing gesture before hopping back to his bale of hay. The cat groaned and stalked around to another habitat to try and get some actual help. She went into the elephant habitat for some answers, hoping to come up with something to lead her in the right direction. Walking up next to him as he swung his trunk around for some children who applauded and tossed in peanuts when the zookeeper wasn't watching. He was a rather large creature and she didn't want to surprise him so she hid by a bush and called out to him.

"Ahem, Hey you...Elephant!" The large gray animal's ear flapped up to the side, knowing he heard something,

"Uh Hey down here!" His eyes focused in on a bush near his water that seemed to be talking to him, he scooted closer and sniffed in with his trunk, earning a yelp of shock and something stuck to his trunk. He pulled back to reveal a black cat looking at him rather perturbed, awaiting herself to be set down.

"Heh Sorry about that, I sometimes stick my nose too far into other people's business." The feline waved it off and shook her head,

"Nevermind that, can you tell me where to find Marlene?"

"The otter?" She looked up to him,

"There is only one here right?" He nodded, the cat gave a small wave goodbye and headed for the otter habitat. It wasn't hard to track her location as soon as the mother cat had begun entering the cave, she heard could see movement in front of her. It appeared to be a large otter with a guitar strapped to his back heading further into the cave. The other cat's eyes narrowed, she had found at least half of the one to blame. Sneaking up behind the humming Spanish otter, she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him to the floor,

"What in the-" she stopped him in mid sentence by flicking out a single claw and holding it to his neck. Fear began to fill the male looking up at her as she glared down at him.

"Well, what do I have here? A giant brown rat. You look good enough to eat." She said in a darkly amused voice, dragging her claw softly over his throat, barely nicking the flesh under the otter's fur. He could only gasp in discomfort as she lightly hooked his skin, giving it a twang with the end of her sharp pointer claw. Just as she'd been starting to enjoy making this male shake, she was graced by another presence.

"Who are you! Get off him!" The cat looked up from her play toy, her eyes meeting Marlene's, the look she gave her sent chills down the otter's spine, as if staring all the way into her inner being as the cat rose, dropping the otter. She then kicked him in the stomach hard enough to keep him from moving anywhere as she approached the otter. She raised a paw, a single claw coming out,

"Who are you?" The otter asked again in a nervous voice, the mother cat kept her gaze focused on the otter as she advanced closer, stalking her almost.

"I'm the one who seems to actually get the big picture, unlike you." She said, suddenly reaching out and grabbing her by the throat, pulling her in close as she struggled under the feline's grasp.

"What What are you talking about!" She gasped as the cat kept her hold on her."Oh I think you know just what I'm talking about, there's a certain person you've hurt badly and now I want to do the very same to you, but you know what the difference will be?" The otter's frantic expression, she raised her eyebrows in a pleading unknowing to the cat so she leaned in with a claw laid down against her cheek.

"The difference is, the pain he feels is on the inside while yours will be displayed to everyone you see." She snarled and pulled her paw back to strike the otter, Marlene winced and shut her eyes tight preparing for the gashes to be drawn.

The mother hesitated, her paw's all four natural blades released and begging for a job to be done, she took another breath as she held the otter against the wall, Marlene shook with terror, her eyes refusing to open. The feline snarled and tossed her to the floor, sheathing her claws from sight, her frustration at not being able to go through with her hate for the sea mammal as she stood over her. Marlene coughed and held her throat as she looked back up at the cat staring down at feline crouched down on her knees and got face to face with the otter.

"You know how much he loves you, how deep you hurt him? No matter how many times I smack you across the face, it won't balance what you've done." The otter gasped a deep breath and looked back at her,

"I didn't mean to..." This caused the cat's eyes to fill with anger.

"You think if I knew you had we would even be speaking right now?" Marlene held up a paw and caught her breath,

"Please no, I know I screwed things up but I still want to be with him, I really do."

"WHY! So you can look at life several years down the road and decide to break his heart all over again because you "couldn't help yourself?" "God I am so sick of people like you!"

"People like me?" The otter asked in mild confidence, quickly losing it once again as the cat growled deeply in the back of her throat, the kind of sound you hear when something is teetering on the edge of tearing you to pieces.

"People like you, the ones who care only about themselves, satisfying their own personal urges and then think that it won't affect anyone." She said practically hissing every word, Marlene looked down away from the cat, her eyes tearing up.

"That's not me..."

"Well if thats the honest truth then you have some work cut out for you." She said,

"Like what?" The cat leaned in,

"I don't trust the ground you walk on, before you think of going near Julien again I'm going to see to it that you change, starting with him!" She snarled flicking a claw towards the battered male otter. Marlene sniffed and nodded, she wasn't lying to the cat, she knew in her heart she wanted to be with Julien, she had no idea what would be in store for her now. The black feline huffed and looked around for a second,

"I'm going to leave now and go back to him, when you think you're ready and dammit you better think long and hard about what you are going to do, you call the phone and tell him that you're ready to talk, if anyone needs questions answered it'll be him!" She stated harshly before turning her back and marching out of the cave on her hind legs. Marlene sat back in shock of what had just happened, she turned her gaze over to the otter laying on the floor, looking back as she sat against the wall she nodded to herself, the cat was right, she needed to change, not just for Julien's sake, for her own as well.

It was several hours but finally the black feline made it back to the warehouse, slipping through the front entrance and back into the large building. She saw Julien perched up in his throne looking over the sea of cats. She gave a tired smile and waved at him, watching him leap down to the floor to face her, the lemur landed with ease before her, his crown still balanced perfectly on his scalp, his face bore an expression of seriousness as he waved for her to follow him into his private quarters. Once inside he turned back to her,

"Max has told me of the cat who's scaring your kids, I'm needing you to be pointing him out to me." The feline looked at him in the eyes,

"What will you do?" Julien hesitated, he hadn't quite thought out his plan of action when it came to facing the perpetrator,

"I...I don't know, I just am wanting to do something to be getting my mind off...you know." She nodded, he looked up at her again,

"You know I had not gotten your name yet, what did you say it was?" She blushed a bit when he asked of what to call her, giving a small grin she rolled her eyes,

"Rena." The lemur nodded,

"Ok then Thomas I'll remember to call you by your actual name from now on." He said with a playful small grin on his face, the feline smirked and smacked him with her paw lightly on the shoulder knocking him back a bit. He laughed, giving her a shove of his own,

"Thanks though, when you think of what to do about him I'll show you who it is, for now though I think I can handle em." She said in a warm confident voice as she gave a wrap around bear hug to the lemur who accepted it. Julien leaned his head back against her white furred chest as she held him, the feline fell backwards purposely against the pillows on the floor, bringing the lemur king down with him. They laughed for a minute before Julien's face dissolved into a low feeling, Rena sighed and held him close as the lemur found his mind wandering back to the painful reality of what had occurred in the last 24 hours. He laid his head against he soft long fur, allowing the mother cat to gently brush his fur with her paw as he laid with her. Gentle sighs were heard from the lemur king as he tried to remain mentally strong, trying to keep it together for whoever needed him to be, though with Rena's comforting strokes of positive reinforcement, the lemur found it also easy to let a few tears drop, running off his muzzle and onto her white chest fur. They both laid on the pillow, not saying a word to eachother but merely letting everything rest for a moment while the two's worlds tried to start putting their pieces back into place.

Julien raised his head up to look at Rena's eyes,

"Will you..stay here tonight? Your kittens can be sleeping here as well I just, I don't wanna be alone right now." Rena nodded her head, stroking the fur over Julien's head, pulling his crown away and running her paw over his ears and cheek, leaning in and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. The lemur, feeling he owed her something, returned the kiss, laying his head back down on her chest and closing his eyes, with a snap of his fingers, Max and the kittens popped in, Rena told him the plans for the evening, Max nodded and began making a slow leave from the den. Julien noticed his sad retreat and groaned under his breath,

"You know Maxy you can be staying here too." He said with great difficulty, max's eyes brightened, if it was nothing else he just loved being included in anything rather than remaining on his own all the time, The yellow cat curled up next to the kittens in the far corner of the room while Julien slept on the mother cat who rested on the royal pillow of napping. After another hour later the lights dimmed out on the residents of the warehouse, one by one the candles and flashlights were snuffed out and clicked off till everyone in the big shelter from the cold was soundly asleep.

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A/N, Well I hope that was a decent amount of excitement for you all in this chapter, I'm glad I finally got to put a name to the mother cat because it gets tough at times to remember what she looks like without a proper name. Thank you for reading and please continue with your reviews, every single though helps!


	7. these thoughts shall help me not

While the snow outside had finally finished falling for the time being, things inside the abandoned warehouse had gotten rather stressful.

King Julien had been in a constant struggle with his emotions since the day he'd caught Marlene with the otter at the zoo. It had struck him harder than he'd thought possible, everything around him seemed to fill the lemur with distaste. Even his food he'd gathered and picked out for himself he couldn't stomach, so he would carry off a meal as the others ate, go into his private quarters and stare at it for a while, unable to convince himself to pick up the fruit and nourish his body. He would bag the food up and wait till everyone fell asleep and then secretly sneak it back into the storage locker. He'd been sure no one had noticed his missed meals, yet that wasn't true, Max watched him one night as he made a trip from his living quarters to the locker and followed him. Julien sighed and closed the door, feeling his stomach gurgle and plead for anything to aid its pain, Max sat behind him unnoticed.

"You need to eat Julien, that noise isn't a good thing you know." He said, The lemur sighed heavily and leaned against the door of the locker, not facing the cat,

"I'm not hungry." Max shook his head, "Yes you are, my Highness, you're starving, trust me I know what that feels and looks like." He said trying to be sympathetic and hide his worry in his voice. Julien rested his head on his paws above on the locker door,

"Maur-Max, I-I cannot be eating right now okay, I'll just get sick if I do." He said tiredly, he wobbled slightly before losing his balance and tipping off the door. Max jumped to the ground and caught him as he fell. "You can barely stand Julien, please, just find something you could never turn away, something you love-" He'd just as soon regretted that word leaving his muzzle as he saw Julien instantly look at him, his eyes on the verge of tears, Max quickly jumped to his side and held him.

"No, Julien don't cry, I shouldn't of said that, please just stay calm, breath deep okay? Breath and relax." He consoled the lemur from breaking down as he'd had to over the past few days of being around Julien, it was seemingly small things that would push Julien's emotions out of control, Max was learning the hard way to find exactly what those buttons were and how to side step them to prevent his king from falling apart. Max huffed and heaved as he lifted up the lemur under his shoulder and brought him back into his private living room, setting him down and slowly helping him off with his crown. Max felt as though what Julien seemed to be going through was contagious as he himself was feeling tired and weakened without his king in his usual energetic and ambitious moods. Max looked at Julien as the lemur rested on the pillow, his head sinking into the soft feather filled bag,

"Look, I'm going to bring you a mango alright, and I want you to eat it before you go to sleep, if you want I can help you with it, can you do this please?" Julien exhaled and looked up at Max's face, his whiskers drooped, both tattered ears fallen forwards, Julien hated when the cat made those faces at him. Groaning he nodded and shooed him away with a paw, Max brightened a bit and walked off to fetch a mango for the lemur, he would pull through this soon enough, this was just the tough part for now.

Several days had passed, five to be exact, and things seemed to be stirring more and more as the days went on within the kingdom of Julien and Max's warehouse. Word had began to spread about Julien's depression though he had tried to hide it from any of the cats, the problem was, the only way for him to do that was hiding himself from everyone. Questions had started to raise about where Julien was, why he never came out anymore from his private room, who was leading the kingdom and worse, why should he remain in charge.

"Well its...complicated." Max had tried to explain to the felines about Julien's absence from the group, though he wasn't having the easiest time with it.

"So uncomplicate it! Why should we wait around for him to come back out when one of us could just as well get things done around here sooner!" One of the cat's challenged, Max groaned and slapped a paw to his face, this was getting out of hand, he needed back up, someone else for these cats to listen to.

"Look, all that we're asking of you is to please be patient right now, the king is suffering a hardship right now and it isn't going to get any better if you don't calm down!" He suddenly growled, taking a step back after he said it. He wasn't usually one to raise his voice or boss anyone around, he'd lived his life more or less in the shadows, waiting till the crowd dispersed and then went about finding scraps by himself. Now he was beginning to take after the lemur king more and more, his confidence since being around Julien had doubled what it once was. The crowd continued to flow with arguments, various rumors and disillusions bubbled throughout the felines below him. Rena, the mother cat came next to Max and wrapped a paw around his back, he looked at her and shrugged,

"They aren't listening, they have to see Julien or things are going to fall apart." He said hopelessly, Rena nodded and looked back at the box where the lemur was,

"let me try to talk to them, I led them here anyway." She said, coming next to the edge of the podium facing the cats.

"Ahem, QUIET!" She suddenly bellowed, causing all the felines below to suddenly stop the endless chitter chatter as they focused on the new cat addressing them. She looked down at the felines with a hint of disgust on her face,

"How can you all act like this? These two have opened their home to you, brought your sorry hides in from the freezing cold and this is how you repay them? Talk of trying to overthrow the paw that's fed you, that's sheltered you? Have you all gone mad?" She questioned the disorderly group, one male stood tall and yelled back to her,

"How is it that you can tell us what to do, you're no better!" This earned an applause from the crowd surrounding the speaking feline, Rena scowled,

"I never claimed to be better than you all, I asked to be allowed inside here though, you all followed me!" she said accusingly, boos were heard from down below from the group as things began to get riled up once more, worse than how Max had gotten it. The yellow cat with torn ears looked to Rena who could see this was going nowhere fast, how could this get any worse? That question was soon answered by the cats getting into an angry mob and beginning to rush the raised level kingdom estate, angry snarls and hisses were sounded as the group began climbing up toward the two cats. Max and Rena ran back into the private living space,

"Julien! The cats are going nuts! They're trying to overthrow you and take everything!" Max yelled to...

Noone? The two cats frantically looked around the room but could not see the lemur anywhere.

"Where is he?" Rena asked worriedly, she doubted they had much time before the cats reached the top of their home, what would they do now? Max ushered Rena to stay next to her kittens as the yellow cat looked outside the curtain to the rest of the warehouse, the cats were angry and closing in on the private quarters, getting closer and closer toward the mother and her kids and Max. Gulping the yellow battered feline went outside to face the cats to buy some time for the mother to get her children to get away from the imposing danger. He straightened his posture and unleashed his claws, baring his teeth to give the approaching crowd any means to rethink attacking.

Just as the crowd closed the ten foot gap between them, they were halted immediately by several smoke bombs crashing down in front of them. Shocked by this and diverting their attention to any direction the blasts could have come from, there was a loud crashing noise and suddenly the warehouse was encased in darkness. Having the ability to see in the dark, the cats were not completely blinded until another crash came from the highest part of the podium, a large burst of flame came from above the cat's view. They all looked up immediately into the fire and smoke and gasped as they watched Julien rise from seemingly inside the flames, glaring angrily down at all of them, silencing the crowd within seconds. The flames glow reflected of the lemur's orange and yellow eyes, giving his appearance all that more furious as he stared down at the felines.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS DISRESPECT!" He yelled with fierce emotion, the flames bursting higher into the air around him.

"I take you in to my kingdom and you wish to attack me, my assistant and dis mother of kittens! HOW DARE YOU!" His fury emphasized as the flames burst up again, making the crowd jump in shock and fear. One male cautiously stood his ground and yelled up to Julien,

"Well what were we supposed to think! We didn't see you for days! How are we supposed to trust you not to just run off on us when you hide for so long!" Julien leaped down from his fiery perch and got up into the face of the cat, his tall stature looming over the undaunted cat.

"AND YOU! YOU'VE BEEN THE INCITER TO DIS OUTLANDISH BEHAVIOR! SILENCE!" He said, poking a a finger into the cat's chest knocking him back several feet.

"If I am needing *jab* time *jab* to myself *jab* den you are to be accepting it! How is that so very much ask of you?" He snarled, the male made a small step forward toward the mother cat and Max but was immediately shoved back by the lemur.

"Stop right where you are being or I will exile you from this place forever!" Julien threatened, forcing the cat to momentarily freeze and rethink his options, finally glaring at the lemur but taking steps slowly back into the group. Julien blew out a deep breath and growled deeply, trying to maintain control over his temper. He looked around to the many faces that stared at him in the warehouse, as his lemur brethren had back on his homeland when he would scold Mort for getting on his nerves.

"You all will being returning to your homes now or you can find somewhere else to live if you don't like it!" He said to the rest of the crowd as he kept his eyes on the cat before him. Noone moved for a second before the lemur turned to look at everyone,

"NOW!" With that another burst of fire shot into the air from up above, the cats began to scatter back to their homes, Julien took one final look at the cat before turning his back and heading for his royal throne. He sat down and rested his head against the back of the throne, Max and Rena coming up by his side as he closed his eyes tiredly.

"Penguins you can be coming out now." He said in an exhausted tone, Max and Rena watched as the four military trained birds came out from their stealthy positions in the rafters and jumped down beside the three mammals.

"Well Ringtail, that was kinda fun." Skipper admitted, Rico nodding eagerly as he clutched a flamethrower in his wings, Julien smiled very weakly and nodded.

"Yes well thanking you pengewins, I was thinking things were getting outta hand." He said, Max turning back to his king surprised,

"Wait, you..you knew that mob was going to attack?" Julien nodded again, the yellow skinny cat cocked his head to the side,

"But how?"

"Back in my homeyhome of Madagascar dey did the same thing to my parents but my dad and mother took care of it." Rena took a turn to ask a question to the lemur,

"How'd they do that." Julien leaned in and grinned,

"We catapulted dem into de ocean." He said with a small grin on his face, Rena and Max both looked at eachother uneasily, it wasn't exactly how they'd pictured dealing with unruly community members but if it worked for Julien... The leader penguin shook his head at the ringtail,

"Really democratic Ringtail." He said sarcastically, Julien glared at him, "What did you call me?" Skipper rolled his eyes and sighed,

"Just remember to keep that phone with you, we're lucky we even got ur phone call, our cellphone was in Marlene's cave for some reason." The name forced a shudder out of the lemur as he sat in the throne, all the birds looked at him for a moment. Just as silence had come over the small group, the lemur's eyes caught four female cat subjects approaching his throne. Julien looked at them questionably as they lowered their heads to him,

"You're highness, we are here to apologize for our actions earlier, we lost our composure and we shouldn't have. You were going through a struggling time and we shouldn't have betrayed you like we have, we are most sorry." They said with their heads hung and paws clasp together in front of their white bellies, two peeked up to see their king's face, quickly darting their blue eyes back down to the floor with the others. Julien sat back with a surprised expression on his face, he had forgotten the last time he'd recieved a true apology such as this. Back in the zoo he'd always been either told to shut his trap or ignored when he demanded someone for an apology, he wasn't quite sure what to say at first.

"I..um..thank you?" One of the felines looked up,

"Will you forgive us sire?" Julien's bitterness seemed to melt the moment the feline had asked,

"Yes yes, you are forgiven, go and tell de others of this." The four cats quickly nodded and turned back and headed down toward the others.

Kowalski, "Um..anyway..." Skipper picked things up immediately.

"Alright boys if the job here is done then we're out!" He began ushering the other birds to the door when Julien laid a paw on his shoulder,

"Err Wait!" The bird looked up at him with a raised brow, pondering what this lemur may request of him now. The ringtail tapped his fingers together looking around nervously,

"Ahem, I am feeling..unhappy for having to yell at my subjects like I just was doing so..., I'm going to be trying to fix dat but would you be willing to stay a lil while longer?" He asked, Skipper almost began reciting his usual response to the ringtail, but was held up by Private, "What were you thinking Julien?" The lemur grinned excitedly and clapped his paws together,

"I am thinking we need to have a giant party here! I need to get all the kitties cooled off." As he said this Rena rubbed his back for support, forcing the lemur to arc for a second in distraction.

"Oh lower, left, no left, no ur other left, AH right there!" he said as his gray body went limp as the feline scratched him. The birds tried to keep the lemur on track with the conversation. Skipper looked back at Julien who's eyes were barely open at the wonderful touch by the feline, his head hanging forward in a lulling comfort, the bird cleared his throat and pushed Julien's head back up to meet his eyes.

"Well what do ya need us for?" Skipper asked directly, Julien thought for a second before snapping his fingers together,

"Security!" Skipper opened his beak but nothing managed to come out, as his brain processed the request he groaned. It was a job they were the best suited for and not out of their requests range, pinching the bridge between his eyes Skipper sighed. Fine Ringtail, but we need to get back to the zoo tonight so no all evening stuff okay?" He requested of the lemur, Julien grinned,

"Ah dis will be such an uplifting time for de king! Max, begin organizing the party arrangements according to de list in my room, go!" Julien said easily. Max raced off to retrieve the list with Rena as Skipper and the fellow penguins organized a detailed plan of attack/defense if things began to turn too rough with the cats in the warehouse. Rico continuously brought up how explosives could be used as a damage control, forcing Kowalski to remind the scarred bird that they were there to contain the problem, not blow it to smithereens. Skipper ordered Private on watch at the other end of the warehouse partnered with Rico in order to keep an eye for anything suspicious occurring while he and Kowalski would watch the party from overhead. Decorations began to fly up and around the rafters of the building, adding a decent amount of color and glow to the rather cold rusty environment, Kowalski managed to hook up an electric generator for the building and applying it to the overhead lights while Skipper went about inserting various colored lights above. Once the stereo had been acquired from one of the residential homes down the street, the scene was set. The lemur kicked on the music and tossed a variety of confetti into the air as the party took its place in the warehouse, bringing its previous darkened mood upright and bouncing. A few of the cats instantly began moving around, their heads and tails thumping to the beat as they got into it and tossed their worry aside, as more and more began to crowd into each other, within minutes the entire fleet of felines were raving and leaping around. Julien made himself noticed as he began to show off a little, he hadn't been able to shake his booty for weeks and he could feel it. It had taken him several minutes to let his muscles loosen and feel the groove around him, though once he managed to, there was nothing to stop him. Rena's kittens laughed heartily as they joined in, leaping into the crowd, the mother cat gasped as she watched them disappear into the flowing mass of cats, her heart quickly lessened its pace when Julien popped up out of the group with all hanging onto his shoulders and two holding onto the leaves on his crown tightly. He laughed as he bobbed and weaved through the mass of felines back towards Rena next to his throne.

Julien set the kittens on his throne, "Aye you stay where you're momma can be seeing you!" He said wagging a gray and black finger their way. The four small cats frowned and then began playing a game with eachother, their attention already off the group of dancing cats. Rena sighed happily as she watched Julien return to her and Max in the party,

"Thanks for, heh looking after them." she whispered in his ear, the ringtail smiled and nodded as he continued to dance. As the festivities came to a close several hours later, the penguins said their goodbyes and returned home while the cats few by few exited the scene and headed off to bed. The lemur king shut down the stereo and clambered off toward his bed/hammock near his throne. He hadn't slept outside his private quarters for a whole week, for some reason he felt it necessary to now. Laying down in his padded hammock, he removed his crown and set it beside him, combing over the fur on his scalp, rubbing his ears gently. He looked over at his aye aye Max sound asleep on his very own pillow curled up snuggly next to the kittens and the mother cat.

The lemur sighed with the smallest of a smile on his face and clicked the remote kowalski had given him for the light fixtures, leaving the giant home in the cover of darkness.

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A/N Ah that felt good to write, I've needed to take a break for a minute just to rest up and enjoy my summer more as its now august and time is running short. I am still wishing to hear any more ideas you all may have for what can happen in this next few chapters if you'll give them to me, I would really appreciate it! Thank you and enjoy your day!


	8. does a good idea really feel this bad?

In the dimly light cave in the New York city zoo, a female otter sat against a wall staring at her reflection. She had been contemplating going to the penguins to get a word of advice on what her best option would be, though it was nothing less then truly humiliating having to bring up the reasons why she had to win back the lemur's trust. She huffed a breath and blew it out, drumming her fingers on her left hand as she thought of what to do.

"Well...I could go to Maurice, he might understand a little more then those guys would." She said aloud to herself, trying to find any downside in discussing the personal matter with the aye aye of Julien.

_But what if he gets mad for what you've done?_

Marlene shut her eyes and took a deep breath, there was little doubt in her mind that the aye aye lemur wouldn't get upset over what happened to his friend because of her. The real question was, would he see that she truly wanted him back in her life again. She got up and walked out of her cave, covering her brow with a paw as the sunlight began to glare down at her, letting her vision come clear momentarily and headed for the lemur habitat.

"Maurice!" She called from the bottom of the habitat, the gray short lemur sat on the top of the stone platform and reclined in a bamboo lawn chair. Hearing his name called, he got up and walked to the edge of the stone ledge.

"Oh hey Marlene, what's up?" He asked.

"Hey, can I talk with you for a sec?"

"Uh sure gimme a minute." He said and jumped down onto the bouncy, sending him into the air and then back down next to the otter.

"So what's going on." Marlene bit her lip,

"I...I need your help with something..." She said as they sat down and she began the entire story of the events between her and the lemur king. Maurice's expression changed multiple times during the telling of what happened, from uncomfortable to upset. She rarely saw the short lemur angry with her but he seemed to maintain his emotions perfectly fine as she continued the tale.

"And thats...sigh where I'm at right now." Maurice blew out a breath of air he'd held in for a minute as he kept himself calm, it distressed him very much that his king, his friend was suffering from a broken heart, somewhere he could not help him and the one who broke his heart turns out to be one of his friends in the zoo. He curled his lip and rubbed his forehead as he tried to give the otter a response the best he could.

"Well Marlene, Julien's not the easiest one for me to guidebook you on what to do to get out of the hole you dug, he's not Mort." He said with a heavy breath, Marlene sniffled a bit and crossed her arms over her knees and laid her head down on them,

"So you can't give me any tips on how to get him back?"

"*sigh* Julien's never been through this before Marlene, least not while I've been around. I couldn't tell you what's going through his head right now."

"Well, is there any...romantic ideas he's ever been really excited to tell you about? I just need SOMETHING!" She said desperately. Maurice could only sit back and look at her as the otter began to feel herself about to come to tears, fighting them the best she could, the otter stood up and wiped her nose off.

"I need him back Maurice, I lost him and its my job to get him back so if you can't help me then I'll find someone who will." She stomped off to the penguins habitat frustrated. Slamming the hatch door she dropped down the ladder and was just about to vent to the arctic birds when,

_wait, where are they? _She looked around, the HQ was dead silent and empty, no note or sign of when they would be returning had been left, leaving her with noone to talk to. She groaned in irritation and flopped down on the floor, feeling herself emotionally falling as she laid down. She sniffled and tucked her face into her arm and wept as she lay in the cold concrete habitat alone, feeling isolated and on her own. "I just wanted some one, anyone to talk to me." She cried, letting her wet tears dampen her dark brown soft fur, as she spoke out loud, she heard something drop in the other room.

"Kowalski's lab?" She looked up and wiped her eyes off, trying to restore her normal chipper appearance if she ended up facing someone down here, not that she wished to hide herself but it still seemed unladylike to have huge sobbing tears and a running nose dripping everywhere in front of someone. She got up and brushed herself off and coughed a little as the floor's dusty got in her throat. She tentatively approached the door, silently laying a paw on it and turning the handle. The otter very slowly opened the heavy metal bolted door and looked inside to see Kowalski at his desk, his back facing her working with something she couldn't see.

_He must not have heard me._

She quietly approached him from behind, her ears picking up the small clinking of glasses against eachother, beakers and test tubes as the brainy bird worked by cleared her throat to bring some attention to herself,

"Ahem, err Kowalski?" The bird nearly dropped a tube of green liquid from the table but managed to grab it before allowing it to smash on the ground below. He looked up and turned around on his spinning stool, his doctor monocle still over his other eye. "Marlene? What are you doing here?"

"I was um...I don't really know I just kinda showed up here...where's everyone else?" Kowalski sighed,

"Snow cones." He said sadly,

"Well wait why aren't you with them right now?"

"Punishment for my latest creation mishap that may have at one point endangered the city with threats of nuclear radiation. I wasn't allowed to go." the bird said casually, turning back to his desk and setting a beaker over to the other side of the desk as he sorted different tubes. Marlene walked up closer,

"Um what are you working on?" He looked down at the bubbling concoction in front of him, now glowing a dark pink almost red with fizzing bubbles at the top. "Well its supposed to be a defector to animal rabies but so far all its come out to be is a bubbling cup of fruit punch, I think this may have been the time for me to ignore Private's opinion to add sugar." He said plainly as he set a lid on the red drink. Marlene nodded in mild understanding not fully listening to the smart penguin's description.

"Hey Kowalski, can I ask you something?"He looked up at her again,

"Um yes go on."

"I'm...well Julien's, do you know anything about relationships?" She hadn't meant for the question to sound as rude as it did, but the bird paid no mind, it helped when your IQ was aboe average.

"Only that they are sometimes a painful life shortening experience." She hadn't quite expected that kind of a reply from him, Marlene raised an eyebrow. Her mind then thought back to Kowalski's unsuccessful courting of Doris, Skipper hadn't helped the situation any, consistently reminding him that the dolphin only saw him as a friend.

"Oh heh, Still not over Doris?" He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow,

"No, the van." Marlene tilted her head,

"The van?"

"Yes the van, in our latest mission against that demented animal control officer, I laid eyes on the most beautiful vehicle I'd ever seen. The space in the back easily enough for a laboratory, it had fog lights, claw snapping arms and even laser drilling capabilities! In our only way to escape, the van *sniff* had to be destroyed. It was one of the most painful moments in my life having to help annihilate the only thing I had really loved!" He said slamming his head down on his left wing on the desk and hitting the desk with his right, The otter could only stare in uncomfortable silence as the bird collected himself.

"Sigh needless to say our relationship was a short one but oh how I'd always longed for it to continue." Marlene nodded even though her mind began flashing the sign WACKO in her head. She tried to pull his mind off it with another question,

"Um so even though it was painful for you...you've gotten through it alright?"

"Oh err yes I recently did a web search for other vans and found one just recently that will be mine soon enough but I still miss the old one. Did that answer you're question?" He asked, Marlene silently nodded, he smiled a little with his beak. The otter waved goodbye and began walking out of the room, she stopped when he called out to her,

"Marlene?"

"Oh um yes?"The bird sat in his chair for a moment, appearing to be in thought as of what to say, finally he looked back at her,

"Don't let yourself get too down with Julien, If science has taught me anything its that mates will often more times then not forgive and forget then force themselves to search all over again for another life partner." Marlene felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as she smiled and backed out of the lab,

"Mates, good lord Kowalski." She said in a breath of air as she climbed out of the HQ. Just as she hopped over the fence, the three penguins showed up in their pink toy car.

"Marlene? What were you doing over here?"

"Oh hi um, well just uh ya know visiting Kowalski." This caused Skipper to lean over and whisper into a recorder next to him,"Skipper's log, Marlene may be jeopardizing the team's moral by maintaining deep secrets with certain members of the squad." Marlene just stared at him for a second and then shook her head. The bird's began to head inside when Marlene stopped Skipper.

"Hey Skipper, um could I ask you for a favor?" The bird groaned and put his wings at his sides,

"urgh, yes?"

Ten minutes later Marlene was facing a large rusty warehouse, Skipper pointed out the front door,

"Go in through that way, Ringtail should still have his cellphone so just have him call me when you need to be picked up ok?" He said, Marlene grinned slightly and gave the bird a thank you hug as she got out of the car. Skipper saluted and then took off out into the snowy road back toward the zoo leaving the otter in the middle an abandoned section of the city she'd never seen before. Marlene looked up at the huge darkened building that Julien was supposed to be staying in but from this sight she had her doubts yet with nothing else to go on, the otter gulped and headed in towards the door. She nervously pushed it open and slipped inside, the darkness of the hallway forcing her to feel her way along the side of the entryway. She saw a white doorway at the end of the hallway and crept down it quietly, trying not to be noticed just yet. She'd gone against Rena's orders to call first and take things gradually, she hoped if anything the feline mother was gone and she could just be alone with the ringtailed mammal for a moment or two.

The brown otter came in the doorway and her eyes grew huge, this place was massive! It was almost as if she could fit the entire zoo in this place. From where she stood she could see a large grouping of makeshift houses from scattered materials such as metal, cardboard and cloth and sticks. There seemed to be dozens of them as she looked around, then in the far distance, she saw something that looked familiar. It was a tall platform with a high seated throne with a stylish backrest, another chair rested beside it a bit lower but stylized the same.

Marlene wrapped her arms around herself as she walked farther and farther into the warehouse, she couldn't see or hear anyone, it was as if the place was abandoned, the silence sent shivers up her spine. A clanging noise over on the far side of the warehouse caught her attention, proposing the otter go investigate.

"Um...Hello?"

Nothing responded to her, She cupped her paws around her to get her voice out farther,

"HELLO!" The clanging occured again, this time on a different part of the warehouse, sending her head twisting in the different direction. This was starting to make her nervous, she couldn't see anyone but something was making this sound but it sounded intimidating, metal on metal banging together, like a machine off its designed rhythm. Marlene ran over to the throne and hide behind the large chair. She watched as the noises became louder and louder, suddenly she saw several dozen cats entering the establishment led by a familiar lemur crown and all with a boombox on his shoulder dancing as he entered the radio blared,

"_A wop bop loo mop alop bam boom tutti fruiti all over rooti tutti fruiti all over rooti Tutti fruiti all over rooti_-" (Tutti Fruiti by Little Richard...go watch the brave little toaster!)

The cats bopped and danced together in a line behind Julien as he led them back into the home. Each of the felines seemed to be carrying some kind of food or supplies, as if they'd just robbed a Wall mart or something. She kept herself quiet as the lemur hopped up on the platform and organized the group together,

"My subjects! You have done well! Store what has been brought and decide amongst yourselves what you wish to eat for dinner tonight." He said applauding the cats below him. Marlene took a second to duck behind the chair and run her mind through what was happening,

"Holy cow he's in control of all these cats? There's like..freaking hundreds of them!" She said out to herself in a quick breath. She wasn't sure what to do now, she could try to sneak out and return later, she might be seen if she moved so for the moment she had to stay put. Julien finished his address and walked over to a yellow cat with torn up ears and began looking over something the cat was holding in his paws. The ringtail gave a smile and patted him on the back before turning and heading over to his throne. Marlene silently gasped, she kept herself low and didn't move a muscle as the lemur sat down with his boom box still playing and rested against his throne. His tail swished about and flopped through the back end of the throne falling onto Marlene. The otter could only stay frozen in place and do her best to ignore the long black ringed tail that thumped rhythmically against her to the music.

After about an hour the lemur finally got up and went over to the mother cat and Max who seemed to be working on something together. Marlene couldn't hear what they were saying, but Rena was pointing at several different empty spaces of the warehouse and the yellow cat stood next to her nodded repeatedly. She took this chance to get up and sneak out, ducking into the first available place she saw, darting behind a curtain and shutting quickly. She looked around and then a thought hit her,

_Aw crap this has to be his room! _Her brain thought grimly as she walked around the place, several large comfy looking pillows lay around making up most of the floor, she saw several drawings hung up with scotch tape, one of the lemur himself, one of Maurice and Mort-cept Mort appeared to be roadkill in the street.

_Nice Julien..._

Her eyes caught another picture that had fallen to the floor. Picking it up she noticed several gashes through it where obviously a paw had swiped at it with claws, her first guess was most likely Rena's. This brought another gulp out of the otter as she looked at the picture, it was of her, drawn obviously when the lemur had been stricken with love over her because he'd taken the time to actually draw all her features unlike the others. She heard the curtain to the room suddenly pull back, she froze in place, unable to turn to face whoever had discovered the two stood there, the one who's found her had made no sound. Marlene felt beads of sweat fall from her brow as she stayed put as the mammal stared at her.

"Put that down." The voice had become crystal clear who had discovered her and it was by any means not a good thing. She cringed as she allowed the paper drawing to slip from her fingers and gracefully dance to the floor as the air let it fall.

"Why are you here?" Marlene bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut, her body cringing at the voice behind her,

"ANSWER ME!" The figure yelled, forcing the otter to flinch at the demand.

"I-I...just wanted..to."

"TO WHAT! WHY ARE YOU HERE!" Marlene cringed again, she felt so helpless in this position, like a child having been caught with their paw in the cookie jar. The mammal came closer,

"Turn around and look at me." She kept her eyes shut as she turned to face the lemur king. Her eyes slowly opened and met his face as he looked down at her. The lemur wore a look of seriousness and distrust as he stared into her face. Marlene couldn't find anything to say in her defense, she'd knowingly trespassed into his home, into his private room and now she was face to face with the one she'd betrayed, nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.

He took a step closer,

"I asked you twice already why are you being here!" He said with malice in his voice. The otter looked down slightly and rubbed her arm,

"I missed you Julien." She said as sincerely as she could without getting choked up. Julien narrowed his eyes at her.

"I did not invite you here, you shouldn't be here!" Marlene looked up,

"Well I was worried about you." She said, he growled in the back of his throat at that statement,

"Its true I did!"His tail flicked from side to side almost in a whip cracking motion. He studied her for a second, she wished she could tell what was going through his mind at that point. Just then, Rena and Max stumbled in, both immediately stopping in their tracks as they saw the two staring at eachother. Marlene gulped as she looked at Rena, who first looked over at Julien to see what his was and then focused the same one as he wore, crossing her black furred arms over one another. Max had never even met Marlene, the one who'd managed to cause so much grief in the kingdom so he couldn't really find any side to take but if this lady had hurt his new friend so badly, he didn't really care for her all that much.

Julien stood silent and drummed his fingers against his his arm as he looked at her. He was angry, he was upset, but he hadn't lashed out at her or anything, told Rena to tear her apart just yet, though the feline seemed more then ready to if need be.

"I want you out of here." Marlene hung her head and nodded, her tail dragging out as she left the curtain door. She stopped and looked over at Rena who maintained her glare on the otter as she departed."Don't let the door hit you on the way out." She whispered to the otter,

Julien's voice was heard again,

"I want her out of this room, I need everyone out for right now. Keep Marlene in sight, I need to talk to her later but for right now get out everyone." He said firmly. Marlene turned to look back at him, the lemur glared at her and then his face softened as he turned away. Rena took Marlene by the arm and led her out of the room roughly,

"Did you think this was a smart idea? The guy has finally been able to get food down again and you come here? Do you want me to smack you, is that it?" She growled at the otter holding up a paw just begging to tear into the mammal's flesh and fur. Marlene shook her head,

"I just thought, if I came here and we...he want's to talk to me so that's a start right?" She asked earnestly, the feline mother slapped her own face and drug her paw down while groaning loudly.

"There is no good that can come of this so don't go thinking everything will be fine when you don't know the first thing about it, just watch where you walk around here." She said, turning herself away for a second and halting in place as she turned back before then grabbed Marlene by the scruff of her neck and shoved her up against the wall, one claw unsheathing in her free paw holding it close to her throat.

"And if I even get a whiff of you near my kids I will tear out everything inside you, GOT THAT!" She snarled, forcing Marlene to flinch and nod quickly. She let her down and turn to walk away with Max who could be seen wrapping his arm around the feline's shoulder, comforting her/trying to calm the mother cat down as much as he could. Marlene gasped and blew out a breath,

_Was coming here a good idea?_

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A/N Wow what a chapter eh! lol The song Julien was playing on the radio as he entered was one from a movie called The Brave Little Toaster, I'm sure you can find it on youtube or just type in Tutti Fruiti by Little Richard, its a good song. The main thing I wanted to be sure people were aware of in this chapter was in this story Marlene isn't going to be affected by her stepping outside the zoo, so she won't change or anything like she had in Otter Gone Wild. Please keep the reviews coming I love all your input so far, its been of great help to me and I appreciate you staying with the story so far, its been really fun getting this going!_  
_


	9. Nightmares

Julien lay on his large pillow on his side, his head resting against the soft material with his crown still atop of his head. His eyes were closed and his breath steady, he was dreaming in a far away place from the warehouse.

The lemur walked down a long passageway, his face expressionless as he approached a tall cave in his dream, looking around he went inside, feeling his way alongside the walls of the cave as he went deeper. A soft tune of music could be heard playing farther down as he went, from where he stood he could see a doorway leading into another room, as if a home had been built within this dark hole in the earth. Julien walked towards, it, his mind entranced by the music.

Suddenly though, he could hear shouting, a voice cried out bouncing down the walls of the cave at him taking him by surprise.

"Ahh Who's being there!" He asked yet nothing responded to him. Another cry came out after what sounded like a heavy hitting smacking sound. Someone was being hurt, it sounded like a female, Julien rushed farther toward the other room.

"Hey who's there! Stop what it is you are doing!" He called out as he came through the doorway. He yanked open the door and gasped,

The lemur was looking at Marlene being struck in the face over and over by a gray animal with a long white tail and a leafy crown.

"Get off of her!" He yelled grabbing the creature from behind and flinging him off to the side. The animal slammed against the wall, Julien turned to look at who had hurt his otter, who would answer to him for this. His eyes grew wide and his jaw dropped,

the lemur was staring at himself, only this one was wearing no crown on his head. He didn't move for a second, looking into the fierce angry eyes of the enraged lemur who began making another attempt at reaching the otter, Julien fighting to hold him back,

"Stop this! Why are you doing this! STOP!" It was as if those big gray ears did nothing for the doppelganger as he resisted against Julien, finally shoving him off and out of the way. Julien fell backwards and reached out in a pleading manner as he watched the gap between his beloved otter and the impostor close. The ringtailed lemur grabbed Marlene by the neck and began squeezing at tight as he could, Julien was scrambling to get back up, to get untangled from the mess of wires and sheet metal and over to her when,

A horrible cracking sound was heard as the lemur's fingers broke the otter's trachea, crushing her windpipe. Marlene's eyes wide for a moment but then began closing as she fell backwards onto the ground. Julien screamed his lungs out in a horrified and desperate tone,

"MARLEEEENNNEEE! He threw the lemur out of the way as he took a hold of the dying otter,

"Marlene, Marlene No, please don't be, no stay here don't go, please stay with me!" His voice cried out pleading faster and more desperate every time. He held up Marlene's head as her eyes drifted shut, he felt her paw fall onto his, taking hold of it in a light grip. The lemur was crying hysterically as he watched her fade into the darkness and finally fall limp in his paws. Julien's shuddering breathing kept him from uttering anything as his body shook, holding the otter tight into his chest he cried into her chest, his pain flowing freely as the tears poured into the otter's soft brown fur. The other lemur stood, hovering over the lemur king as he clutched the otter's lifeless body,

"Get up." Julien refused to hear the voice.

"Get up now and face me."The lemur kept his face buried in the otter's fur, his body shaking as he wept. Gasping for air he finally set her down along the floor, rising to his feet his eyes tightly shut, none of this was real, this wasn't real...

"Look at me Julien." The ringtail sucked in breath and straightened himself up, turning and facing the lemur he weakly made out the only word he could find,

"Why..." The lemur looked at him intensely. "She wasn't worth your pain Julien." The dopplganger said with ease, as if he'd known all along.

These words caused the crowned lemur to break his frail state, snapping he grabbed the other lemur by the shoulders and rammed him straight into the wall. Moving without thinking the ringtail grabbed the other lemur's head and began smashing it as hard as he could against the cold stone wall, again and again screaming in agony and blinding rage, harder and harder until he could feel the skull cracking apart and spilling against the wall behind him. The lemur king finally dropped the clone Julien who fell to the floor, unconscious as Julien took a knee down next to him,

"She was worth every moment of it." He snarled before wrapping his now sharpened jaws around the other lemur's neck and digging in and wrenching his head back, tearing out the impostor's windpipe in his teeth. He gasped as he let the flesh and dripping muscle fall from his jaws onto the ground, he sat there panting, all of a sudden a bright light was being shined down on him. He could hear Skipper's voice,

"Ringtail?" He looked at Marlene, and then at the blood on the muzzle of Julien and then finally down at the lemur body he'd destroyed. Julien reached out a pleading hand for Skipper to pull him up, to pull him out of this hell he'd fallen into. The bird's face turned to one of stone though,

"Take him down Rico, that mammal's hurt too many innocent people." He said sternly, the scarred bird with the mohawk nodded and aimed a flamethrower at the cowering lemur,

"NO! STOP!" Within seconds flames encased his body, wrapping him up in their deadly claws, his fur instantly singeing away as he began to feel his flesh start to melt-

"GAHH!" He yelped panting out of breath as he sat up in his private room on his pillow, he grabbed his chest, feeling his heart rate finally beginning to come down from its skyrocketing level previously. Julien looked around, he was in his room, on his pillow still, Marlene was still alive, he didn't have any other lemur's around looking like him. He quickly brought a blanket over his face and cried into it, he couldn't handle these nightmares anymore, it was killing him and he knew it. Slowing his breathing, the lemur sighed and flopped back down on the pillow, his crown rolling off onto the floor. Max popped his head in from the curtain,

"Julien are you alright?" He asked,

"Yes yes I am being better, just a bad nightmare." Max wiped his brow,

"Oh okay phew, thought you were being attacked or something."

"Yeah so did I." Julien mumbled under his breath, "Ahem uh go fetch Marlene, I should speak to her now." Max smiled and nodded, dashing out to find the otter as Julien reached over and picked up his crown again. Calming his breathing down he laid back down on the pillow, staring at the ceiling as he awaited Marlene's entrance. Max led Marlene into the ringtail's private quarters, shutting curtain behind her. She stood quietly, holding her paws together in front of her as she waited for the lemur to do something, Julien groaned and brought his paws to his face as he lay on the makeshift bed, discreetly trying to wipe his eyes of any remaining tears from his nightmare. He spoke through the paws over his face, not bothering to see th otter at the moment, trying to find exactly what he needed to say.

"So I to be assuming de penguins brought you?" Marlene nodded,

"Well I asked Skipper to take me here so...its not their fault its mine." She said trying to keep the lemur from making this into something it wasn't, she refused to have anyone else get in trouble for what she had done. Julien sighed and rolled his head over and looked at her, his face wore no anger anymore, it appeared to be something close to thinking actually.

"You wanted to come here?"

"I told you I missed you, that was the truth." This made the lemur pinch his brow, clawing at the eye dust that had built up since he'd been asleep. He then pulled his long ringed tail in close to him, not making eye contact with her anymore, focused on his paws lightly brushing his appendage.

"Max told me you haven't been eating."

"no...I haven't." He said, he wouldn't lie to the otter, she knew how truly horrid he was at attempting to took a turn to sigh,

"He also says you've been distant from everyone here for a while now..." This earned a pained groan from the lemur.

"Max is saying too much, tell him to shut up a little." He said with a limp wave of his paw still looking at his tail as he lazily began batting it side to side to himself. The otter came down and sat next to him, she laid a paw down on his thigh, forcing the lemur to tense up as he felt her touch,

"Julien I never meant to do this to you. Nothing I say will probably make you feel better about what you saw that night, but I need you to know if I'd had the slightest idea this is what would've happened then I would never have gotten near that guy." Julien took in a shallow breath,

"It is too late for I am sorry, you know dat." He said in a calm voice,

"Yes it is, but I want you to stop hurting yourself. you don't deserve to suffer like this, its not your fault." She said, her eyes getting misty as she lifted her paw and stroked his chest, looking at his face, his eyes turned down to meet her's. They still carried the orange and yellow tones to them, yet Marlene could see something in them had faded, something that she'd noticed every time back at the zoo that the lemur wore proudly. He let go of his tail and looked at her, the otter holding back her tears from what she'd seen him experience because of her.

"I just...I saw you and de other big otter and you were so...happy...with him." He said sorrowful, his voice sounded as though it was lost in a desolate road of depression, the joy and energy he'd carried within himself now vanished and washed away.

Marlene sniffed, wiping her eyes, she took the lemur's right paw into hers, slipping her fingers in between his and wrapping the other paw around them.

"Julien..." The lemur looked up at her, his eyes staring into hers with the glimmer of wary curiosity, as if he wished to indulge her, to give into her request, yet something within the two yellow orange orbs seemed to be holding back. Julien lifted his other paw and laid it gently on Marlene's paw, leaving it atop to rest as his face studied hers and then looking back down at the paws holding one another between them.

"Marlene...I am begging myself to let go and hold you as I am always wanting, my heart is telling me it cannot handle what I've felt before."

The otter's eyebrows lifted pleadingly,

"But Julien..I can give you happiness again, you'll be just like you were back in the zoo with the rest of us!" She said in a desperate tone, her mind holding on for him to reconsider, the gray lemur sat with his head hung forward, not looking at her anymore.

"I...I need to think of what to do...You may stay or go but for now I must be alone." Marlene stood up, hurt coming through in her face as she looked at the lemur in front of her on the pillow.

"Julien if you don't figure out what you need soon enough, you'll never get it in the end." This propped the lemur's eyes up at her for a second, he sighed and then looked back down at the floor. Marlene exited the room with a huff as she went to wipe her eyes with her paw. She tried to keep deep steady breaths and calm herself, but as she tried to walk away from everyone in the warehouse that moment, she could feel things building up inside her. She found her vision becoming distorted and blurring as her eyes moistened, she shook her head hard and wiped them again. She overheard the sound of a young kitten meowing playfully in the area to her left. Turning her head she saw Rena sitting a few yards away holding her children in her paws away from one another as one continually batted at the sibling with her paw as if it were a game. Rena lifted her head up and looked over at the otter, Marlene's lip was trembling as her eyes continued to water, she turned away quickly and tried to walk off to put some distance between herself and everyone around her. The mother cat quickly sat down her fighting kids and gestured to Max to keep an eye on them as she got up and followed the otter.

Marlene felt embarrassment and heartache beginning to set its full weight on her, she tripped on something hard and metallic, sending her off balance and toward the ground. She braced for impact, knowing concrete was an unforgiving surface and when you went down it hurt. Her fall was halted however, by a black arm reaching out and wrapping around the otter's front side, holding her from crashing to the ground. She pulled the otter back up to her feet, holding her by her shoulders, Marlene cringed out of instinct but the feline seemed to not be trying to harm her at this time. The black cat held Marlene with a soft touch in her paws, the otter felt her cheeks grow red with embarrassment and damp as her salty tears fell down through her fur below her eyes. Rena looked at her face, the otter was clearly upset with whatever Julien and she had discussed, something had brought on a flurry of emotions when they'd spoken and from what Rena could tell, it wasn't what the brown mammal had been wanting.

Rena spoke first, holding Marlene at her shoulder,

"What happened?" Marlene bit her lip and shook her head, the feline gave a light sigh and raised a paw, instantly making Marlene cringe again but soon found the cat's claws still sheathed as she brushed the hair back on the otter's head and down the side of her face. Marlene trembled and looked at Rena who at this point was doing her best to give a comforting gesture, Marlene closed her eyes and spoke.

"He's not gonna take me back." She said, her voice quivering and shaky.

"Is that what he said?"

"No but he said he...needed time to think and I don't know why! I haven't even seen him for a month!" She blurted out to the cat, Rena gave the otter a small hug with a shoulder squeeze for comfort. She told the otter to stay where she was while she went to check on Julien. She drew back the curtain door and entered, seeing the ringtail knocking his head against his fists as he stood in the far corner.

"Julien-you're highness what's wrong?"Julien stopped and looked at her, he closed his eyes and hit himself once more,

"I can't go back to her." The black cat tilted her head,

"Why not? She came all the way here to talk to you, she has to care about you or she wouldn't be here." Julien shook his head, the leaves on his crown waving in the motion of the lemur's movement.

"It is not being that simple Rena."The cat came up to him,

"Nothing is simple but Julien you have to start somewhere or you're not going to get better, this whole thing has already done massive damage to you mentally and also physically. Look at yourself!" Julien refused to, he couldn't bear to look at his reflection, to see himself, the dream he'd endured would only come back harder if he did.

"I won't."

"You won't what?"

"I won't be looking at my royal self, I'm not going to." This bothered Rena in a large way, even in her small amount of time with the lemur, she'd grown to understand his self adoration, always complimenting himself, asking how he looked just to hear more good things as well, for him to be saying he wasn't wanting to see his own face was telling her something was deeply troubling the lemur. She came up and pulled the lemur's face in to her's,

"what's really bothering you Julien?" The lemur shivered with his eyes closed, blowing out a fast breath and reopening them, looking down at the floor.

"I..don't want to hurt her." The cat didn't know what he meant by that,

"What are you talking about? She's hurt that you aren't talking to her-" Julien pulled his head up,

"No, I am saying physically hurting her! I don't want to!" He said, taking a step back and holding his head with his arms as he turned away from her, Rena became very concerned for the lemur's state of mind as she stood next to him, the ringtail facing away from her.

"You...you think you'll attack her?"

"In my dream..I...I killed her.." He said softly,Rena took a deep breath and kept herself from taking a step back,

"You killed Marlene in your dream?"

The ringtail nodded,

"And now you're afraid that if you get close to her again you'll lose your head and possibly kill her in real life?" She asked laying a paw on the lemur's back, Julien nodded silently again.

"Julien, I don't think you will, I think Marlene would be perfectly safe in you're paws, you don't hurt people randomly." The ringtail's mind instantly drew a picture of himself punting Mort off the balcony of the zoo habitat. He blew a breath out his nose and rested his head against Rena's,

"I am not being so sure..." Rena wrapped him up in her arms and rested her head against his furry chest, as if attempting to hug out all the negativity within the lemur's body. She could feel Julien's soft breath brushing over the fur on her scalp, it sent a small shiver of pleasure through her body. She kept him wrapped up and with nowhere to run and hide, the ringtail voiced a deep sigh and brushed his cheek against her forehead, it felt to her as a gesture of trust, tightening the bond between the feline mother and the lemur.

"Rena I am scared."

"Don't be, I'm gonna be here whenever you need me. I know you can put things back together with Marlene, just trust me and Max to be there to help you along the way." She said, her voice soothing the lemur's mind. He lifted his head up and held her away at arms length as he looked into her green eyes.

"You have to promise da king you won't go when I need you." Rena nodded and gave the lemur another hug,

"I ain't going anywhere." Julien gave a small smile, "Okay...send Marlene back in, I need to talk to her again." Rena nodded and disappeared behind the curtain. There was a yelp of surprise as the otter was pulled into the lemur's private quarters.

Marlene, "Okay what is the deal! why did she just drag me back here when you-" She was cut off, finding the lemur enveloping her in his arms, wrapping his long ringed tail around the two of them. Marlene gasped in surprise as Julien leaned in without a hesitation and placed his muzzle up against hers, their lips connecting, forcing the otter's eyes to close as she took in what was happening. Julien broke the kiss and nuzzled her neck affectionately, a soft purr coming from within the lemur that buzzed into the ear of Marlene. She could barely feel herself standing as they held each other,

"I will need my time to adjust but I offer my courtship back to you Marlene." He whispered in her ear. She felt a wave of heat overtake her whole body as she heard these words, pulling the lemur's face back into her's she responded with a kiss. She pulled him in close and ran her paws up and down the lemur's back as they stood together in the private quarters.

Rena peeked an eye out from the side and watched them. She truly felt happy for the lemur to be once more able to feel again, though her heart gave a subtle twitch inside her. It felt slightly painful to see the lemur once more unavailable for the taking, unobtainable for her own self, the feline dropped the curtain's side and retreated back to Max and her kids. Max sat with the four kittens as they snoozed all in a small group, watching over them as they slept.

"Hey thank you for looking after them, i didn't mean to dump them on you like that." Max shrugged his shoulders,

"I don't mind, you gotta keep an eye on these lil guys or they'll get into serious mischief haha." He replied with a small smile at the end of his sentence. The feline didn't say anything for a moment, she looked over the skinny yellow cat, observing his thin frame, his battered tail. Her focus then turned to his face, his blue and green eyes looking back at her, awaiting anything she had to say, his torn ears, ripped from obviously running into the wrong crowd. He seemed to not be too worried about them though,

_He has strength in him, _

She had to admit, as she'd resided at this warehouse, not once had she seen this yellow stray cry or even whine about really anything, he seemed content with just having something to do, a place to stay and food before him. Rena turned her eyes down to her children, looking at them snoozing softly, batting at invisible things in their sleep. She thought to herself for a moment,

_Rena What are you thinking?_

"Sigh, these lil kids will take it outta ya won't they?" She said casually, trying to put a solid case together for this yellow feline, see what he would say when she said something.

Max gave a small smile and brushed one of the kitten's ears with his paw,

"Yeah but aye they aren't small forever, when they are its..kinda special." When he said this she looked back up to his face as his eyes stared down at the kiddie felines. She wasn't sure whether it was genuine or if her mind was trying to make excuses for her to make an attempt with this cat, but she saw a sign of caring for the young cats as he looked down at nodded in agreement,

"That's true, sigh I'm not gonna like the day when I have to let em go." He looked over at her,

"You worried about how they'll make it out there in the world?"

"Yes and no, they can more then likely pull their own weight, its not so much that,..I just-"

"You don't want to be alone." He said reading her expression, she looked up at his face, looking past his scraggly whiskers and into his discolored eyes. Rena laid down and nodded,Max cautiously approached and laid down next to her.

"you know what it's like don't you?" Max's face dropped a little as he looked over and laid his head on his crossed over paws as he lie on his belly."It's nothing you really want to have to live with but somehow you just...do." He couldn't find exactly the right words to describe how he'd experienced his past few years on his own. Since living his life in this new kingdom, he'd plain forgotten about the hardships he'd encountered during his time in the city. The relentless rains pouring on him as he ran to find shelter for the night, the unbearable hot pavement he was forced to cross as he scavenged for food. The worst though was the times he was so very aware of how alone he was even in this large city, how he'd had noone there with him, every night curling up into a tattered rag underneath a car or inside a refrigerator box by himself, shivering and miserable, with not a single soul to hear him or care.

Rena noticed the cat slightly shivering a bit as he recollected on his homelessness, sending chilling tremors down his frail body. The black furred feline moved up next to him and pulled him up next to her, she was good at comforting, that much she could do and really it almost eased her mind to hold someone.

"Hey hey shhh, it's alright." She said quietly as she held him from behind. The cat had obviously been through a lot and had just been brought back to it from just a few words out of Rena's mouth. She brushed his fur slowly, easing his emotions as she pushed back his fur on his cheeks and over his ripped ears, trying to get them anymore damaged then they already were. He rolled over to face her, the two looked into each other's face.

"I don't wanna be alone ever again, I know this place may not last, but I know I can't go back to how I was before." He said, putting honesty into the air, Rena reading the truth to his voice and silently agreeing.

"I don't want you to be by yourself Max." She said, pulling him in close and wrapping her paw over his body, the yellow cat's body relaxed. Having the mother cat holding/cradling him as she was he felt so...secure, so safe, free from all the danger he'd fled from in this city, he didn't want it to stop. He lifted his head a little and looked over at his royal bed near Julien's hammock, without a word between the two of them, the cats got up and pulled the blanket Rena's children were sleeping on, over to the bed, gently picking each one up and setting it in the lower part of the bed near their hind legs. Rena gave a soft smile as she felt the comfort of the yellow cat's bed, her body resting comfortably for once. Max checked to make sure everything was quiet and alright, the mother cat rested on her side and motioned a paw for the yellow stray to come back next to her. He laid a paw on her side as she did on his, each other now wrapped together. Max snuggled his head onto the white fur on her chest, she smirked and petted behind his head rhythmically as they both soon dozed off to sleep.

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A/N, Wow that took a minute! lol Hope this was an enjoyable chapter, fear not the story is not over, there is still more to come so stay tuned and I thank you for following this story os far, and ideas or things you would like to see just let me know in a review! Thank you!


	10. Only a king would try such a thing

Rico yawned and scratched his feathered belly as he sat up in his bunk, allowing his back muscles to stretch and loosen. He plopped back down on his bed, resting his head against the pillow, he'd woken up before everyone else which for him was unusual considering how the bird was one to appreciate his sleep and carried a bit of a morning attitude when it came to rising in the morning. He blinked his blue eyes and looked up at the ceiling, pondering what would be asked of him that day, what training regiments they would endure, what would he be allowed to use from his personal bodily armory? He groaned slightly, flipping himself to the side as he tried to get back to his sleep while he still had a few hours before training began. His eye cracked open and peered around the room, resting on his plastic lady. She leaned up against the door of Kowalski's lab, her chipper smile and eager happy eyes ever present as she stayed there motionless.

The scarred bird peeked down at his sleeping comrades and slipped his way down to the floor, sliding over to his dolly without a sound. Picking the inanimate female up he sat against the door and contently stroked her hair with his wing, his eyes never leaving hers as he brushed her lightly. A small moan was heard, directing the scarred bird's attention over to the bunks where he could see Skipper twisting in his sleep,

"Stop...there's no documentation problems let me outta here.." He mumbled as he tossed and turned.

Rico's face fell slightly, he disliked it when his commanding officer encountered bad dreams, it left him grouchy and stern in the morning. The scarred bird crept over to the lowest bunk and gave his doll a final pet before setting her next to him, his eyes watching over where the snoozing bird's flippers went of course. Skipper mumbled a few more words incoherently before finally shaking his eyes open, he blinked and surveyed the room. Rico was sitting up next to the coffee maker preparing a cup of joe already? Skipper sat up and brushed his face with his flippers, feeling a weight dropping off his body as he moved,

"nightmare?" Rico chirped in question at his rising commanding officer,

"That obvious my crazed soldier of demolition?" Rico grinned and nodded.

"Well thanks for uh the comforting gesture but I'm better now." He said, waddling up to the coffee maker and pouring himself a mug. Dipping a fish from the food storage into the coffee, Skipper sighed in comfort as he sat at the table with his teammate,

"Ah nothing beat's a quiet morning eh Rico?" The scarred bird took a swig of his own cup,

"yup." He said contently. Within minutes the alarm sounded and the two awake birds enjoyed watching the hilarious scene of Kowlaski and Private leaping out of bed at the sudden noise.

Skipper, "Haha At ease boys, good morning. Grab a cup and take a seat, I feel like getting a slow start to the day anyway." The two now alert birds calmed and came over and took a seat at the table. Private yawned and graciously took a cup that was handed to him by Kowalski who began to drink his, noone said a word for a moment, really nothing had to be said just yet, the penguins had lived with one another for so long that they could all enjoy a silent few minutes in the morning before the day actually got started. Skipper began looking over the daily newspaper he'd nicked from the printing press the night before it was shipped out, he saw no need to go fetch a paper in the morning when he was barely up when he could grab one and save it for the next day. He read through the front page, his eyes diverting over to Private who sat waiting patiently, silent as a dog begging for dinner scraps. Skipper gave a light chuckle and tossed over the comics section to the young bird who grinned and began eyeing each cartoon with great anticipation of the coming humor. Kowalski leaned in and began his usual work on the word searches, granted he still couldn't read but he could manage to match the listed words with the ones hidden inside the letter puzzle so in the end for him it was a win win.

Private finally broke the silence,"Hey Skippah, do you think Alice will have noticed Marlene's absence? What with Julien already gone for so long now?" Skipper raised his head and leaned over to the periscope checking up top. From his sight, an angry zookeeper was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Oh she's already aware Private." He replied, going back to his paper.

Private, "Um...do you think that might cause her to lock everything down around here?" Skipper lightly groaned as he was pulled away from his paper once again,

"Private, of course she's going to-SHE'S GOING TO LOCK DOWN THE ZOO?" He said yelling the last part in shock as he leaped from his seat away from the table, he jumped over next to the periscope and took it in both wings eyeballing it closely, as he saw the Alice beginning to usher people out and close the gates. Kowalski, "Why are you worried Skipper? She doesn't even know about how we get in or out of here so what's the problem?" He asked casually, Skipper grabbed his head and shoved it in front of the periscope where the bird saw a large black man with sunglasses and a jumpsuit stepping in,

"THAT is the problem Kowlaksi."

"No..that's not-"

"It most certainly is! Officer X!"

In the king's private quarters, Marlene snoozed peacefully as Julien lay wrapped around her, like a protective blanket, his tail in between their legs, wrapping around her left hind leg lightly. Her comfortable sleep was cut short when a loud buzzing could be heard on the table next to them."Urgh" She groaned tucking her face into the bend in Julien's arm, not wanting to give into the evil technology that intruded on her sleep. The lemur still dozing, pulled her closer to him in his sleep, she could feel his warm steady breath on her neck as he slept through the phone's annoying interruption. She patted his overlapping paw away as she unfurled his tail from her leg to stand up, she walked over to the table and picked up the cell phone,

"Hello." She whispered.

"Marlene?"

"Yes? Who's this?"

"Skipper! We need you back here now! Alice is giving Officer X full reign on the zoo to try and find you, we can't make a move until you get here!" Marlene groaned loudly covering her eyes with a paw, why dear lord why was this happening? She'd just gotten here last night and now this! She pinched her brow and took her focus back to the phone,

"Well is there anyway you guys could, idk, make it looks like I'm already back, a decoy or something?"

"No dice, we tried you're plushy toy but-"

"But the head popped off." She groaned,

"Correct now I need you to find a way to get back here, we can't pick you up so you'll need to be escorted back."

"Escorted? Why?"

"Do you remember every single turn we took Marlene?"

"Um well no but-"

"Then tell Julien to get you back here pronto!" This order ruffled her fur, she hated being bossed around. Right as she was about to tell the penguin off, she looked at Julien, who unannounced to her had woken up as she'd been on the phone. He looked at her with curiosity and worry, Marlene leaned over and scratched his head, forcing him to close his eyes and shiver a bit at her touch.

She turned back to the phone, "Look just hold out okay, we'll figure something out." She hung up and looked down at the lemur sitting below her,

"Who's dat?" he asked,

"That was Skipper, the zoo found out I'm gone now everything is locked up until they find me." She said tiredly, rubbing her face with her paws, Julien fell backwards onto the pillow,

"So...you have to be leaving?" He asked, his voice nervous, she'd just gotten back with him, they'd just reconnected, how could she have to leave so soon?

Marlene thought for a second, "Unless...Julien can you ask all of you're subjects to come out for a meeting?" The lemur nodded and stood up, stretching and cracking his neck as he strode out of the quarters. He climbed up on the royal throne and put his paws to his mouth. "My subjects, please approach my throne, now!" He bellowed out to the warehouse. In several minutes all the cats had formed a crowd below the king's platform, looking to the lemur for instruction. Many were still tired and being supported by their able neighbors.

Julien, "My queen has announced to me she is needing to be returned to the zoo..." He leaned down to Marlene as the cats waited on his speech to continue. "Psst what am I suppose to say now?"

Marlene, "Tell them you need someone to take my place for a few days so the suspicion wears off."

Julien, "Ahem, because of dis I am calling upon one of you to do me and my queen a favor, we are needing whoever is looking the most like her to take her place in the zoo for a few days until she is ready to return."

One of the cat's in the group, a larger orange long haired tabbie called out to the king, "You're highness but what about our home here? Why must one of us depart when we have already made this place our own?"

Julien leaned down, "I am only asking for dis one thing, it is not being forever only a few days, the other kingdom I reign over is under attack and needs someone to fill in for my queen to reestablish order, in compensation you will be given free fishes for all three meals a day."

A Siamese stepped forward from the group, "But she is all brown...when was the last time you saw a brown cat her same color? We come in black, gray, orange, white and mixed but not her color of brown." She said, Marlene slapped a paw to her forehead as Julien began to think on his feet, "Well...there is a rather drastic option we could try.." Marlene looked at him with a raised eyebrow and her paws on her hips, "Drastic like how?" Julien uneasily tapped his fingertips together as an uncomfortable grin grew on his face,

"Well, We could be stealing de zookeeper and shipping her off to another country?"

Marlene, "Julien no! that's horrible, besides, she's the one who takes care of us! Something else, please." She said. The ringtail stood in thought, dozens of eyes looking up at the two non felines in anticipation of an idea. The lemur drummed his fingers for a minute, looking down at the cats staring up at him. He suddenly heard the phone ring once again and ran back to retrieve it as Marlene stood outside waiting with the others.

Julien grabbed the phone and ran back out to the platform and put the phone on speaker, thankfully there was a large button labeled SPEAKER right in the middle of the buttons.

"Hello?"

"Ringtail! You need to get Marlene back here now! Officer X is tearing apart the zoo trying to find Marlene, if he doesn't get her soon, our HQ will be discovered."

Julien, "Oh...and that affects me..." A very frustrated Skipper yelled through the phone,

"IT AFFECTS YOU BECAUSE IF OUR HIDE OUT IS DISCOVERED THEN YOU CANNOT WATCH TV HERE EVER AGAIN! DO YOU WANT THAT?" He bellowed on the other end of the line. Julien's eyes grew large and his jaw dropped,

"*gasp* No more entertaining car crashes?"

"NONE!"

"Fear not flightless bird we will be there shortly!" He said hastily and hung up the phone. The cats looked at one another after hearing the phone of the tabbies stood up,

"You're friends' they are in trouble?" Julien bit his nails and nodded nervously as his mind raced on what to do. Max's face paled and his eyes grew wide as he realized who the birds were talking about.

"Julien they're in deep! That guy is from Animal Control!" A large gasp was heard throughout the crowd as Max said this, Julien ran his paws over his face, tapping his foot in worry. His expression turned from one of fear to frustration, he'd just gotten everything he'd desired and this single city employee was going to take that away from him? Never!

The lemur stepped up to the edge of the platform before all the cats, Rena and Max stood together with the children as the lemur made an announcement, it would be a bold one but he had confidence.

"My loyal subjects, I have a plan, for too long de humans have scared you kitties away from where you lived when it was without having a master! I ask of you now to join with me and bring down this simple human and return home safely." He called out to the group, arousing much conversation through the cats grouped together. Max stepped up next to Julien and looked at the warehouse from the throne's side, he wished not to lose all of this, all these friends, everything they had collected. No if the king wanted to make an insane stand against the very ones who chased him around and kept him from living comfortably, then he would stand by him.

Max, "I know who this guy is, he's considered by ourselves very dangerous and relentless. I don't want to have to ever see him again and nor would any of you, but Julien has a point, if we don't make a stand now against Animal Control, then there will never be a time that they won't come after us! This has to end here and now!" He said strongly, earning a loud applause from the crowd in agreement. Rena smiled proudly at the yellow feline, he knew firsthand about this character and was still willing to go out and save the day if possible. The lemur patted Max on the back and stepped down to the ground level to organize a plan in a short amount of time. After five minutes several cats ran around the warehouse like mad gathering random bits of supplies, a little red wagon, tape, sticks and an old fishing net about ten feet by fifteen. The cart was loaded up and the feline's marched out the front door led by the lemur king. Max dashed back to Rena for a moment,

"I'm sorry but I have to ask you to stay here, Julien's orders." Rena smiled and punched him in the shoulder,

"Just go save the zoo you slave!" He grinned and stood on his tippey toes to give her a kiss on the cheek before running back toward the group. Rena sighed disappointed she couldn't join the marching group of rebelling cats. She looked down at her kids who wrestled with one another and quickly gathered them up and hauled them off to the lemur's private quarters in case things got bad and the bad found it's way into the warehouse.

Julien called Skipper back on the phone as he lead the group of cats down the street in a strong crowd.

Skipper, "Julien?"

"Yes Skipper, we are on our way! Can you be doing your fighty thing to give us more time?" He asked, Skipper looked to Kowalski who was wrenching at a device on his work table.

"We might be able to figure something out, where are you and Marlene?"

"We're a few streets away from da zoo, we have a plan!" Skipper groaned,

"A plan?"

"YES A PLAN YOU SILLY-gah just await for us to be getting there shortly!" Julien barked into the phone before slamming it closed as he marched on. When the zoo was within sight, the lemur looked around, there was a crowd of people outside the zoo waving there arms and complaining, he turned back to his group.

"Okay here is the first part! Marlene, you need to be getting back into the zoo, find de zookeeper and get him out here okay?" Marlene nodded uncomfortably. Julien smiled and continued,

"And den the guy will come out here, letting us go into phase number three!"

"Wait what was phase 2?" one of the cat's asked,

"Urgh I am meaning phase two! Keep up already!" Julien hissed as he ushered Marlene toward the zoo. The otter nodded and ran over into the gates and into the zoo again. The lemur waved for everyone to follow him into one of the fire escapes with the equipment they had brought. running up the steel steps followed by forty cats, the lemur began setting up for his attack on the animal control officer.

Back in the Zoo, it took no longer than three minutes for Marlene to be spotted by officer X. He made a fast dive to apprehend her, but she ducked at the last minute and ran as fast as she could past him toward the gate.

"Oh no you will not! Otters are for entertainment, to appease human beings, you dare to slack away from you're job?" He said in a deep voice forcing Marlene to stop a second and look back at the officer only a few feet away in a face of, "really? You're that nuts?" before taking off again. She wormed her way through several gates of the nearby habitats as the animal control officer stayed hot on her trail. He knocked over several benches, trashcans and a nearby pretzel cart to snag the aggravating otter, firing off several different types of curses in his pursuit.

Skipper could only watch from the periscope as the otter dashed from hideout to hideout, frantically trying to get him outside.

"This is ridiculous men! We can't just let poor Marlene just be chased and taunted by that egotistical maniac with a badge!" He growled, Rico nodded his beak in agreement.

Private, "But Skippah, if we leave now he'll spot us and we're not exactly on good terms with him right now are we?" Skipper put a flipper to his beak,

"Duly noted Private but in the end who should we really leave to get the job done? Julien? Or the ones who get the job done?" Private began to raise a flipper causing Skipper to bark,

"I'm talking about us!" The flipper went down after that.

Skipper, "Alright boys, we've gotta save that otter, out of the hatch men ,now!" The four birds popped out of the fishbowl hatch door as Marlene rounded the corner and sprinted for the main gate.

"Rico get Marlene a safe exit out of this zoo! Kowalski tell me you have a plan!" Kowalski whipped out his clipboard,

"Absolutely nothing on the spot Skipper!"

"Blast well then we'll have to wing it!" The commanding bird said as he dived and slide on his belly to the animal control agent, the two birds followed swiftly after him.

"Come get some!" Skipper yelled taking a leap toward the agent, who quickly swung around and nailed him with the cattle prod.

Officer, X, "Soo you little birds wanna see some payback do ya? Well payback will come with interest!" He said menacingly as he managed to nab Kowalski's foot with his right hand, and then quickly dropping him in pain as the brainy bird with no real plan of attack sprang up and nipped at him with his beak. Officer X sucked his finger for a sec before growling in anger as he saw the scarred bird toss Marlene over the side of the fence.

""NO!" He yelled, rushing by the penguins and running over to the gate, taking what appeared to be a basketball air jordan commercial leap over the fence. He pursued Marlene down the street where Julien had told her to go, She looked around frantically, where was he? He couldn't of just left her there, could he?

"Julien! Where are you!" She called out as she ran, the agent was closing in on her, she could practically feel the fingers near the back of her neck when,

A voice yelled from the top of the building next to her.

"NOW!" A large net fell from the rooftops and dropped right behind the otter, encasing the animal control agent, tangling him into a ball and sending him crashing to the ground. Marlene looked behind her and gasped as she saw officer X trapped and struggling to get free. Julien leaped down from the fire escape and landed on the agent.

Julien, "Quickly someone do something before he gets out!" The answer came from a rather large black and white cat who proceeded to slam an empty bottle onto the man's head, knocking him unconscious.

"Err okay a little much but good job!" Julien said seeing the now laid out animal control agent at their feet. Several cats cheered as they gathered around him and with their numbers, managed to lift him into the little red wagon and began shoving him down the road toward the warehouse. Marlene gasped out of breath and stood leaning over panting as Julien came over to see her.

"You okay my queen?" She nodded, still panting but stood up and wrapped her arms around the lemur, who was surprised at first but quickly gave into the hug, returning it as the penguins came over to the cats.

"Ringtail, what happened to that deranged animal control officer?" Julien maintained his hug and jerked a thumb over in the direction where the cats were hauling the man off tied up and secured. Skipper's eyes widened,

"Oh...um good job. Not to break this up but Marlene should still come back to the habitat-" Julien looked up from the hug, glaring protectively, causing Skipper to take a step back,

"At least for a few days, just stay here Ringtail, you should visit with you're old pals anyway." The lemur king exhaled and looked toward the zoo, Marlene patted him on the shoulder,"Its okay Julien I'll be back in you're new kingdom before you know it." She said, scratching the spot on the back of his neck that caused Julien to spasm uncontrollably with a look of euphoria on his face.

"Okay but you have to call you're king this evening, promise?" He asked the otter, she answered his question with a nod and a kiss on the muzzle, making the lemur melt in her turned back and headed for the zoo, Skipper walked up next to Julien,"Hey what exactly are you planning to do with officer X?" Julein looked back at the human being carted off to the warehouse. He began to grin evily,

"I am thinking of some very fantastical things we could do with him..." He muttered drumming his fingers together, Skipper raised a brow and stern face came over the bird,

"You're not allowed to kill him ringtail that's unauthorized!" Julien's eyes widened,

"I'm not going to be killing him, just...err scaring him a bit." Skipper looked very unconvinced at the lemur's statement,

Skipper, "Well whatever it is, I'm coming with you to oversee that things don't get...out of hand." Julien slumped his posture at that, "Urgh fine! But do not be pooping de party!"

"You mean Party Pooper?"

"Yeah dat!" Skipper gave a shrug and held out a flipper for Julien to lead the way through the melting snow. The penguins followed the lemur back to the darkened warehouse, Private consistently asking about what was happening now. Julien kicked the doors open and walked backwards into the warehouse, guiding the kidnapped city employee into the kingdom. Rena's eyes grew double in she saw the "present" the lemur and the other cats had returned with. She walked up to the ringtailed lemur,

"Julien what have you done?" She asked looking at the human now outfitted with a black bag on his head and still tied lemur grinned,

"We controlled de animal controller! HAHA!" He laughed jumping in excitement. Rena rolled her eyes and shook her head. "This isn't good Julien." She said before turning and walking away. The lemur's face slumped as she left, "grr leave it to de female of de species to make you feel disappointedly, but not now, my subjects, get de human into restraints, right now!" He ordered, several cats sprang forth with ropes and one with a lengthy bit of chain, began binding the human, Kowlaksi overseeing the knots being tied for secure fastening. Skipper stood by Julien as they watched the cats finish their handy work and left the officer resting on the cold concrete floor. Julien tapped his finger to his chin,

"Hmm what to do, what to do." One of the cats grabbed a fork and a large knife with a bib on his small neck,

"Comeon let's eat him! look how much meat there is!" He said drooling as he banged the ends of the kitchen utensils on the officer's body. This outburst earned several shaking heads and groans of disapproval, the hungry feline's whiskers drooped and his expression turned to one of irritation,

"...Just sayin.."

Skipper looked up at Julien who was staring at the human, "You thought of anything yet, you're highness?" He asked mocking the lemur somewhat. Julien shot him a dirty look before looking back at the human."I am thinking he should be waking up soonish so..." As he was speaking, the officer's head began to twist from side to side and his body started to struggle,

"Ah he is already awake den!" He said, the lemur approached the tied up man and pulled the bag off his head.

"What the? Where the heck am I?" He suddenly came face to face with the lemur,

"GAH! What in the HELL! GET OFF ME YOU RACCOON!" Julien narrowed his eyes as he stood on the man's chest, tapping his foot. "I am not a raccoony thing!" He snarled kicking the human in the nose.

"OW!" Skipper's instinct was to get the lemur off the officer, yet something was holding him back, more then likely it was the fact of how he'd wished for a time to listen to this cocky human cry out loud and look weak, but a part of him knew this wasn't right. The line would get crossed sometime this evening, Skipper just wondered how soon it would come to that.

Julien looked to two large felines,

"May you go build us a fire?" An orange paw went up,

"how big you're highness?" Julien kneeled down and plucked the sunglasses off officer X's face, exposing his eyes. Julien stood up and looked down at him for a minute, watching the man's once calm and collected state begin to fizzle as the lemur watched the fear begin to rise in his expression.

"A large one." He said in a dark voice with a smile. Officer X gulped and could already feel beads of sweat building on his brow as the lemur looked down at him with a creepy expression. He couldn't understand a single sound that was being uttered from the mammal on top of him, but from the look in it's eyes told him it was time to worry. The penguins gathered together, Kowalski leaned over to Skipper,

"What's Julien up to?"Skipper could only shake his head,

"I don't know but it doesn't look good."

border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border border bord.

A/N, damn my fingers are tired lol! Haha well things are now at more of an anything goes now situation, will Julien do something drastic in order to maintain his kingdom and Marlene's paw in courtship, or will the penguins manage to save him before he gets into too deep of trouble? Stay tuned, review I beg of you how I love to hear you're thoughts! Haha! See you later!


	11. The evening lemon Nightmare additive

This chapter first of all contains a lemon so if you are not wishing to read such things, merely await for the next chapter to come in, which shouldn't be all that long I've gotten about halfway done with it already. Second, I want the readers to know this chapter takes place the evening Julien takes Marlene back in courtship in chapter 9 Nightmares. Just a take on what happened behind the curtain between the two mammals everyone know and loves, I didn't want to rush anything but this was just an idea I had so let me know what you think of it.

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The room was quiet, still and silent, it felt soothing in a way, to have to outside distractions, no interruptions of any kind. King Julien smiled as he lay next to Marlene on the large pillow in his private quarters, the otter turned over to see him grinning.

"Hm, why are you so happy?" She asked in a playful taunting voice, the lemur looked over to her and pulled the otter closer to him.

"Well, you're being here so that already is a big plus." He said leaning in to give her a kiss, she blushed and returned the gesture with a quick peck on the lemur's cheek. He pulled her in close to him, his face still donning an unmovable smile as he locked eyes with her. She ran a paw over the side of his face, brushing lightly at the fur on his cheek where she'd kissed him, he chuckled and lightly nipped at her fingertips with his mouth. They laid side by side for a few moments, just taking in each other's own unique features, Julien ran a fingertip under Marlene's chin, sending a tickling sensation through her body, her face leaning in closer to allow the gray mammal better reach.

"Ah you enjoy de king's royal touch?"

Marlene's cheeks grew slightly warm under her fur as she rolled her eyes and nodded slightly. Julien soon took on a scheming facial expression as he lifted his finger to her chin once more and scratching, earning a soft purr from the otter as she tilted her head in order for him to scratch the sides of her cheeks and the back of her jaw. She closed her eyes in enjoyment as she let the lemur entertain himself with watching her shudder slightly and brush her face against his hand with more friction then before. The feeling was entrancing to the otter as the lemur continued his action, she met his eyes again and pulled his head closer to hers, gently placing her muzzle against his, watching the lemur's facial expression soften and appear quite pleased. The two began to kiss with increased passion, their lips pushing together with more force, more excitement. Marlene found herself opening her mouth, allowing the lemur's tongue to enter and explore with her own, the lemur and the otter pulling each other right up against one another belly to belly. Marlene laid a paw on the back of the lemur's neck, her fingers lightly pulling at the soft gray fur on the back of his head, Julien rested a paw on her side, slipping it slowly around to her back where her began to rub small upward circles into her fur. They both retracted their heads for a second to get some air and a second was all it took before the lemur brought his mouth back to Marlene's, open mouth kissing her and nuzzling her nose with his own as he let his paws travel over the otter's body. His nose took in her scent in her fur, it was something that gave him the urge to continue with the one he loved laying before him. Marlene could barley contain herself from moaning with pleasure as the lemur stroked down her back and closer and closer to her behind. She let her own paws try to keep up as she ran her left paw up the side of the lemur's leg, forcing a shudder out of the king.

Julien pulled back and gazed into her soft brown face, taking in the immense beauty he saw before him. Keep his eyes on her, he began to slowly kiss down her cheek, onto her neck, laying the softest of kisses down her neck till he reached toward her chest. The otter was purring uncontrollably at this time as she let the ringtail continue with whatever her seemed to have in mind, all she knew was she wasn't about to have it stop any time soon. The lemur brought both his paws to her chest, lightly squeezing her breasts, earning a soft moan and an arc in the otter's body as he touched her. He let down his face and brought his lips to one of her increasingly hardening nipples,a gasp escaping her as he nibbled at it with his teeth in the utmost care.

The otter shuddered again as she felt the wondrous sensation of the lemur beginning to suckle her with growing force as he continued to squeeze at her breasts. Marlene's breaths shortened during the lemur's unexpected playfulness with her chest. Julien, while keeping his mouth fastened on her right breast, began to gently slide his right paw down past her chest,

"Julien." She moaned, causing the lemur to feel suddenly very hot as he continued with his actions. He traced down her belly, drawing a circle down her belly button for a second and paused, gazing to her for any sign of approval to continue. She stroked his face and lightly clawed through the fur on his back as an attempt to keep him on the move. The lemur's fingers traveled farther down until he'd reached the otter's thigh in which he started slowly making a direction upwards, teasing her until the otter's leg's opened wider. He pulled his face from her chest and locked his lips against hers again as he brushed over her entrance, feeling the surrounding fur quite wet and hot, Marlene whimpered in pleasure from the mammal's touch. The otter lifted her crotch in the air a few inches, mentally pleading with the lemur to continue, to go further, deeper, however he might be able to fulfill her growing desire. Julien softly and thoughtfully drug one finger in between her lower lips, a large gasp and short breaths coming from Marlene as she felt her heat overtaking her with ever growing minute. The lemur slide in one finger and then a second massaging her inner walls and inserting them in and out of the water mammal's pleasure spot.

"Oohhh.., oh please don't stop!" The otter moaned to Julien, making him begin upping his pace, earning shorter gasps from Marlene as she began gripping his fur with her paws. He continued to pleasure her and began kissing down her stomach as she squirmed and girated against his fingertips, his muzzle now at her opening, he took a large breath in through his nose, her musk racing through his entire body as he cautiously took a small lick.

"Agggaahh!" She cried feeling the lemur's tongue slide into her genitalia, Julien found the taste like a soft nectar across his taste buds as he thrusted his fingers in faster and faster lapping at her crotch in the same time.

"Julien oh ohh my god! JULIEN! JUUULIIEENN!" She groaned as the otter shot her crotch upwards into the lemur's face as she climaxed, her juices hitting Julien's muzzle, some going into his nose forcing him to retract his face and shake his head, a few drops of her orgasm on the sides of his face. Julien leaned up and grinned down at her. She pulled him in and lapped up the rest of her juices on his face, like a cat washing another one's scraps out of their fur. Marlene fell back as she felt the full aftershock of what she'd just experienced with the lemur. She looked at him, trying to catch her breath."You...done that before or something?" She asked between breaths, Julien gave a little smile and shrugged his shoulders, back on Madagascar it had been common for the royalty of the clan to breed with the females of his choosing for time to time to secure a royal bloodline, several of the female lemurs had managed to give the king a tip or two of what they truly enjoyed. The ringtail smiled and nuzzled her neck, falling back down on the pillow beside her, looking at her with a certain special glint in his eye.

"I ave a few helping knowings here and dere." He said with a smug look on his face. Marlene leaned in a kissed him again, pulling back after a minute and looking him over. Her eyes drifted down the ringtail's body, from the chest lower and lower until her eyes caught sight of the lemur's genitalia. His member was now fully hardened it appeared and dripped a few bits of precum. Marlene soon got a sly look on her face and pulled the lemur in for another kiss, letting her left paw drift down the side of his body, staying on his hip for a moment as they let their tongues wrestle. She then brought it down to the lemur's crotch, running a few fingers over his hard on and then brushing against his balls, a look of drug induced pleasure spread on the king's face as Marlene wrapped her paw around his member and slowly beginning to lightly pull on it,

Julien, " Ahhh.." He shivered from the otter's touch as a familiar sensation grew within him. He closed his eyes and placed a paw over Marlene's to guide her in touching him. He squeezed her fingers tighter and began pumping up and down with her to get her started. The otter smiled warmly as she handled him, her pace trying to keep steady but beginning to increase, forcing a groan from Julien, who leaned his head back and let his mouth fall open from the sensation. The otter pumped faster and faster, from the tip of his erection to his testicles, the rest of the lemur growing stiff as she worked her paw on his cock, he soon felt himself getting close, the buildup was growing more and more as Marlene continued,

"Marlene I'm I I'm gonna, I'm gonna-" He barely was able to breath out as he felt the orgasm racing toward his tip, Marlene felt encouraged to work even faster, sending the lemur into a pelvic thrust as he started shooting his load. White liquid burst from the lemur's member as he let out a long shudder, feeling the fluids coursing through and out of him. Several drops ended up in the otter's fur as she gradually came to a stop, doing her best to get every last bit out of her king. Julien's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed against the pillow, his crown falling off and rolling across the floor but he refused to notice it. Marlene's face glowed as she looked up at him as she rested her head on his chest, the lemur's heartbeat could be felt currently doing its best to slow back to its normal pace. The lemur king rested his head against the pillow in a falling ecstasy as he came down from the natural high he rode for several seconds. The otter soon brought him back to earth again as she hopped atop of the ringtail, bringing her lips to crash against his as they bean another tongue tussle together as she sat above his belly, her tail wagging slightly as she made out with Julien, his own fluffy appendage curling up around her waist as they kissed. Sparks flew in Julien's mind as he locked his lips with this beautiful creature, her fur's aroma was like an addiction he couldn't get enough of, his eyes refused to leave her brown eyes that seemed to see past everything else about him and go straight to his soul. He squeezed her shoulders as they made out with eachother, Julien finding himself already beginning to "rise to the occasion" once more. He could feel himself growing hard again, his member once more sliding from it's furry sheath and standing at attention as they kissed. Marlene's behind brushed against it and she broke away and looked down, it was in that same moment Julien took it upon himself to make his queen his and his alone. He looked at her with a special glance, his eyes asking for permission to take this mighty step with the otter, to make them one and seal their love together. Marlene felt herself nervous, she had never breed with anyone before, she's barely discovered her own body's amazing pleasurable abilities until this very evening with her lover. She bit her lip, breaking eye contact for a second as her mind raced, going over the understanding there was no turning back, there was only to advance, to go forth with life's one form of honest love. Julien watched her, his whiskers intertwined with her own as they felt eachother's breath for a moment.

"Is this too much my love?" Julien asked tentatively trying to block out the screaming voice in his head to take her already, his silent prayers soon became answered as Marlene breathed deeply and gave him a smile that said everything that needed to be spoken. Julien wrapped his paws around her face and gave her the largest kiss he'd ever done with anyone. She returned the favor and rubbed his back as she began to scoot up and get herself prepared for this next step. The love stricken lemur tried to contain himself as he furiously kissed her, his paws upon her chest squeezing her nipples earning groans and whimpers from the otter all of which encouraged him more. He got himself evenly laid out on the pillow as Marlene cautiously lifted her rear upwards, feeling the lemur's dick sliding up, tracing a line from her backside up and toward her front. Marlene gave the lemur a final kiss before she reached down and guided the ringtail's love pole toward her entrance. She braced herself and began slowly sitting down, taking in the lemur's manhood into her own,

"Aaggghhhh." She moaned as she felt the tip first slide in followed by more with every second as she allowed gravity to do the work easing herself onto the lemur. Julien's eyes closed and he gasped in the adrenaline and pleasure rush he was experiancing this moment. She was so very tight but thankfully she'd been excited enough to take him into her.

Julien felt the otter stop and his tip rested against her hymen, Marlene gave a small look of worry, she hadn't known whether this would hurt or not, Julien soon remembered the first time he'd taken a lemur girl's virginity, he'd not realized back then he needed to be careful instead just thrusting right in and the girl cried out so loud he'd figured he'd go deaf. He could tell his queen was scared, taking her paw into his, he gave a light squeeze in comfort. Marlene gave a small smile and dropped down the rest of the way, her eyes slamming closed as she to the brunt of the pain in silence. That was it, he was all the way in her, she was having sex, with Julien, something she'd up until this point only ever dreamed of.

The gray mammal squeezed her paw again before giving a small thrust to get the motion going to ease her pain, Marlene soon followed, her hips beginning to work in a steady motion rising and sliding back down upon him, reaching just before the tip was exposed and then coming all the way down his length. Marlene grunted in enjoyment as she started to get more focused and ambitious with her actions, riding the lemur quicker every second, every breath barely able to utter out before the next one came up. Julien scrunched his face together as he tried to hold out and keep from ending things too quickly for her, he began to squeeze and fondle her breasts, running his paws down and up her back as well, his tail beginning to tighten around the otter's waist as she went up and down on his cock, her buttocks slapping against his balls but not enough to cause any pain, only bringing him closer and closer to euphoria. He gripped Marlene's paw tight as she squeezed back, he felt the otter's crevice squeezing his lemurhood for all it was worth. Marlene felt herself getting closer to that point she'd reached before only minutes ago,

"Julien I'm close!" She moaned, the lemur craned his head back,

"Me too my love." He gasped in a short breath. He began thrusting himself into her as she rode him, rising the pace several notches. Marlene closed her eyes tight,

"AAAHHHH URRGHM!" She groaned as she felt herself release, Julien barely made out a secret thank you to the sky spirits as he felt himself go over the edge.

"MMAAARRLLEEEENNEE!" He cried out, shooting his seed into her crevice, his body arching so high he lifted her up in the process several inches. Feeling the last of his orgasm depleting, he lowered himself and the otter back to the pillow. Marlene stayed with him inside her for a moment longer, she kissed him on the nose and whispered a thank you as she raised her hips and removed him from inside her. Julien unraveled his tail from her waist, the otter took it in her paws, brushing her face against it, feeling the softest fur the lemur seemed to have on him. Julien gave her a final smile as he laid his head back, his eyes growing heavy and difficult to keep open. His queen rubbed his face with her paw, her gentle paws sending him off to one of the best sleeps he'd ever encountered.

Outside the quarters, several cats popped their heads out of their private homes,

"Did you hear something?" A white cat facepalmed,

"yeah...too much actually." He said gesturing a claw up toward the lemur's den a few feet above his house, the other feline caught on,

"Oh ahaahaha!" The white cat frowned,

"Come tommorow morning I'm moving to the other side of this place." The other cat grinned and began making obscene sexual gestures with his paws, the white cat rolled his eyes and went back inside pleading that he might be able to get some shut eye out of all this.

"Just too much.."

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Heh, yeah I've never written a lemon before so I ask you review with that in mind, sorry this was bumped up to a M, just figured it was something that was necessary for the story to cover all aspects that i wanted to, so thank you for reading and I will have another chapter up shortly. Thank you!


	12. Crashing down

A/N, This chapter is back to the present time when the animals have the officer kidnapped and set to do rather evil things to him or at least that's what he thinks!

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The mood had changed from the typical in the warehouse, it now carried one with a sinister musk and tense enthusiasm.

Julien directed the cats to arrange for a fire to be built near the center of the community center they had all set up during their time in the homestead. He looked back and forth from the cats slaving away quickly and quietly, to the tied up human within their kingdom. He'd attempted to yell twice before receiving a rag shoved into his big mouth courtesy of Rico who, when the wood had been piled up, ushered the cats out of the way before upchucking his trusted flamethrower and torching the sticks and logs in the pile, creating a warming environment for the cats, and also a shocking display of firepower to the animal control agent, who could only stare in disbelief at what the penguin had just managed to do. Rico looked back at the man with a an increased sense of pride as he was finally able to show off to one of these fleshy pink beings that reigned over them. Blowing out the flame and swallowing the device, Rico went back into line with his squad members.

Julien, "Ah thank you Rico!" He said patting the penguin on the back, looking over at Skipper,

"Eh, how are we to be getting de answers from dis guy if he can't understand what it is we are saying?" Skipper looked at him with a raised brow, "come again?"

Julien groaned, "How do we make de human understand what we are saying?"

"Oh, simple, we don't!" the lemur put on a face,

"What! Why not?"

"Ringtail, you're on thin ice here as it is, if that human finds out we can talk, that'll be the end of it! Kapow! ZANG! No more stealth, no more under cover operations, we'll be interrogated daily like prisoners! Nothing will be secret anymore! Do you understand?" The lemur frowned and narrowed his eyes.

"I understand that you aren't thinking big!" Again the bird gave the lemur a questioning look,Julien continued,

"Think Skippah, if we can get de humans to understand us, de might not keep mean people like DIS guy in jobs!" He said pointing a paw over in officer X's direction to which the human gave a small whimper. Skipper shook his head, "Julien humans can't just FIND OUT that we can speak, you don't know the terrible outcomes it will bring." Julie waved a paw at him,

"If I am being wrong den later I will be strong enough to live with de fact I was wrong." He said smugly, making Skipper's blood boil as the lemur walked over to lemur extended a demanding paw,

"I command you to give to me de word speaker!" Kowalski's head fell into his flipper,"you mean, the spell and speak?"

"Yeah dat one!" the ringtail said approvingly, Rico without thinking, threw up the child's toy and passed it to Julien who took it with an index and a pinky finger, shuddering at the saliva on it. Skipper groaned angrily while shooting the scarred bird a dirty looked, Rico shrugged his shoulders.

The lemur approached the human laying in ropes on the concrete, his eyes never leaving the agent's as everyone watched in anticipation of what the lemur might possibly do. Julien set the spell n speak on the ground, carefully looking at the keyboard at the shiny letters and buttons, deciding what he would attempt to say first to the human, breaking forever the force that separated humans from animals. Julien looked at it for a minute and then his expression turned to one of slight confusion as he leaned down to begin typing out the words he wished the human to hear and understand. The lemur groaned and slapped a paw to his face, dragging it down slowly as he realized the biggest problem at the moment,

He couldn't spell at all. He tapped his foot and rubbed his chin as he looked down at the device, giving Skipper a moment of hope the lemur would be too stupid to carry out his plan. His hopes were soon shot to pieces when Julien asked Max to hand him a dictionary. The yellow cat nodded and ran off toward the lemur's private quarters, quickly returning with a webster's dictionary.

The cat took a knew with the ringtail as the lemur whispered in his ear, the feline began flipping through pages. Julien typed as the cat spelled out each word slowly and carefully, waiting for him to finished the last word before he moved on to the next one.

Julien smiled at his new found ability and thanked Max, sending him off again as the lemur looked back at the human, he walked over and yanked the balled up rag from the human's mouth,

"BLEH! You sick vermin! When I get outta here I'm gonna-" Julien held up a paw to silence him which officer X curiously stopped his rant and stared at the african mammal with a perplexed glare. Julien stepped on the speech button and the electronic voice was heard,

"Human, you are to shut up and listen to me now." The monotone voice called out, Julien taking an authoritative stance and scowling at the human. X was stunned for a moment,

Had..had a zoo animal just spoken to him indirectly? Julien leaned down and began typing the few words he was actually able to write out,

"My...name..is...King...Julien." X's eyes widened, this creature was not only talking to him, it saw itself as some kind of royalty. The agent asked himself inwardly if this animal had been some product of lab testing gone wrong.

"Do...you..understand... what...is...being...said?" The lemur typed almost painfully slow, forcing Skipper to throw his wings in the air and go up beside Julien,

"Dang it Ringtail if you're gonna ruin animal civilization at least know how to get it over with quickly." He grumbled taking a seat at the spell and speak.

Officer X, "what are you? Some experiment backfired?" Skipper typed fast at the keyboard,

"We are cats, penguins and a lemur. We've always been able to understand you humans." X glared,

"You lie! You creatures aren't that bright, you can't get me to believe that nonsense!" He muttered reassuringly to himself. Skipper tilted his head to the side as Julien whispered in his ear,

"King Julien says you're a moron." the emotionless voice said.

"I AM NOT! You..YOU FLIGHTLESS-!" Skipper growled and walked up and slapped him in the face with his right wing, heading back to the spell and speak, typing in quickly,

"Enough with the name calling silly human, just listen to what we have to say." The spell n speak uttered, X laid his head back down against the concrete, "This is insane, I'm actually having an argument with lower beings, what has this life come to?" He asked himself, The lemur whispered in the penguin's ear once again, forcing him to type.

"your days of attacking helpless creatures is now over." X looked over at the many cats looking at him in his vulnerable condition, one seemed to be panting, a ting of drool coming out of his mouth, holding a fork and knife, making the agent slightly uncomfortable. The officer gritted his teeth and forced a mean glare at the penguin and the lemur,

"You think just because you learned how to type on a child's toy that this changes anything? Once I get outta this you're all about to be screwed!" This outburst earned several uncomfortable looks from the penguins and the lemur to the cats and back.

Spell N Speak, "...Could you rephrase that?" X growled and forced his eyes shut, banging his head against the concrete in frustration.

Skipper smacked his own face, "Julien were getting nowhere with this idiot, could we please just dump him outside or something already?" Julien tapped his foot once more thinking to himself, his eyes wandered away from officer X over toward the fire where several felines sat around it with thawing fish on sticks. He approached the fire and looked down at it for a minute, the soft flames reflecting off his orange and yellow eyes. He then took a glance at the four penguins standing together, his eyes falling on one particularly.

Private leaned to the side and whispered, "Why's Julien looking at Rico like that?" The scarred bird noticed the lemur's eyes on him and turned his head from side to side and finally his gaze fell back to Julien who seemed to be planning something. Rico gulped, feeling a tad uncomfortable with the lemur looking at him as he was. Julien approached him and held out a paw,

"dear vomity penguin, may I ask you for a-" He lifted his head and looked at the other three penguins, their eyes narrowing at his scheming expression, the lemur leaned in and whispered to the bird, turning him away from their view. They saw Rico hack up something at least, but with his back turned to them, Julien quickly took it and held it close to his chest and walked away from the bird after giving him a pat on the head. As the lemur trotted off with the mystery item in his paws, Skipper tapped his foot impatiently and glared at Rico who finched at his unhappy gaze, "un Sorry!" He said, shrugging his shoulders and wings. Skipper looked back over to the lemur who was approaching the fire again, his paw dropped down to his side where he held clutched in his furry paw-

"DYNAMITE! RICO!" He yelled in shock and immediate frustration as he bolted over to Julien. The bird made a grab for the stick of explosive but the lemur was too quick and danced his way through the attempts at snatching it back."Julien! This is too far! You can't use dynamite on a human!" He pleaded trying to reach the ringtail's last ounce of sanity he may still clutch near to him. Julien pulled the dynamite stick from behind his back and looked at it, stretching the cord out straight an tight, "But look how long de cord thingy is, I just wanna light it a few times and blow it out..."

Kowalski intervened, "Actually Julien you cannot simply blow those fuses out, they require water to be extinguished and seeing as you have not available hose or water supply-"

Julien groaned in anger, "Yeah yeah yeah enough with the sciencey talk! I just wanna scare de human!"

Skipper shook his head and held out a wing to repossess the stick, the lemur shook his head,

"Come on Julien, you know this isn't right." The leader bird tried to reason with the lemur. The ringtail's eyes fixed themselves upon the dynamite and back over to the human still bound and struggling. "But he is being so rude to de king and he deserves punishment!" Julien said trying to make a last ditch effort to hold onto his explosive device. Skipper shook his head,

"There's other ways ringtail, you know that, come on, give it over." He said, curling the extended wing for emphasis, Begrudgingly, the lemur handed over the stick of dynamite and sighed sadly. Skipper walked back over to Rico, passing by the human with the stick of dynamite. X caught sight of the demolition tool and nearly fainted.

"What in the-WHAT IS THAT?" He yelled worriedly, Skipper looked back at him and typed with a foot as he locked eyes with the man,

"Dynamite." The machine uttered.

X struggled, "WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE DYNAMITE?" The penguin looked down at the stick for a sec, meeting eyes with the officer again,

"To end you." The spell and speak replied dully. Skipper glared at the man, bending down to type with a wing never breaking eye contact with the man.

"Do not think we don't remember who you are, consider yourself lucky I took the dynamite for now. The lemur would have already blown you to smithereens." X struggled fiercely trying to get out of his ropes, the cats coming closer to the man now, staring at him as they came closer,

X, "Get them away from me! Get those felines away from me now!" He yelled, Skipper turned his head to the side, typing one word,

"...Why?" Beads of sweat began to drop from the officer's head as he thrashed and wiggled. The cats were all within a foot of the man now, each of them staring at him in what looked like some kind of trance almost. Private nervously tugged on Kowalski's wing,"What's wrong with the cats Kowalski?" The brainy bird shook his head, not able to tell what might be going through the resident cats brains at that moment. He watched one of them lift up a small sized kitchen knife, approaching the officer who couldn't move.

Officer X, "GET IT AWAY! DO IT I SAID!" He yelled in panic, still attempting to believe he had a hint of control left. None of the animals listened, the one blade wielding black cat came up next to the man. She lifted the knife up and with a blank stare, very slowly and lightly tapped the officer's hip with the knife, not doing any damage, but more or less imposing her curiosity of the human it seemed. Skipper loosened up, his body had been set for a flying kick to disarm the feline if anything looked to be too unethical, to the bird everything psychologically damaging was in a sense acceptable seeing as how this human being was already a few cans short of a six pack. Officer X shut his eyes tight, his face scrunched up tightly as he did his best to will the feline away. She didn't move however, a gray spotted male coming next to her and resting a paw on her shoulder,

"Nessa what is it?" The black cat he whispered in her ear, she kept her eyes locked on the man,

"...He..."Her voice made out only the one word as she instantly fell silent again, The gray spotted cat leaned to the side to get a look into her eyes which stayed focused on the man, not making any attempt to notice the other cat.

"He what Nessa? Do you know this man?" She gulped and nodded without blinking, her breathing turning short.

"He put my father in a cage...I never saw him again." She breathed, her eyes widening, slowly raising the knife, Skipper began to walk over, "Hey put the weapon down!" The cat refused to listen, her mind severely focused on the officer in restraints. Max and Rena slowly approached from behind, creeping up close to the possessed cat. Nessa held the knife in the air, Officer X screamed loudly in terror.

Rena came up next to the cat, "Nessa-" The all black feline flipped around on a dime, her knife swinging across in a fast motion, almost hitting the mother cat. Skipper leaped in the air and chopped down on the cat's paw, disarming her and knocking her to the ground, his stick of dynamite rolling over to the blazing fire. Kowalski saw this and could only yell,

"LOOKOUT EVERYONE!"

The fuse caught immediately and within five seconds after everyone had hit the floor, an explosion blew the fire out of control, sending flames and burning chunks of wood all over the warehouse. Cats were running left and right, flames raining down on them, some having their fur singed by the explosion. Julien looked around in the mass panic, he caught sight of the doorway. He jumped up to the top of his throne, "Everyone! Get out of de kingdom now! Go to de door de DOOR!" He yelled frantically pointing with both his paws at the exit. Felines from every possible angle came running to the door causing a massive pile up, Max grabbed Rena's paw and ran to her kids trying to find them as everyone evacuated. Emotions ran high as every cat scurried for an escape route, several cats getting knocked down in the process and trampled over by the others.

Skipper and his team leaped back to the animal control agent,

"GET ME OUT OF HERE! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE!" His yells were quickly silenced as the bird chopped his neck, rendering him unconscious.

"Kowalski, extraction on 3 2 1 go!" He ordered as the birds grabbed the cuff of the man's shirt and dragged him toward the door. The fire grew in size, it's dark blackened clouds of smoke starting to fill the area making it incredibly hard to see. Skipper squinted as everyone raced around. He couldn't see the ringtail, what was he possibly doing?

"Ringtail! We need to get out now! Where are you!" He called out into the darkness over the flames, getting no reply. He looked back to his team, "Alright we get this big jerk outside and then wall to wall search for the lemur, got it." Rico, Private and Kowalski nodded and resumed dragging the large human outside. Once they'd gotten him out of the immediate area, Skipper slide on his belly back into the warehouse. The bird's mind was racing

_WHERE IS HE?_

Skipper knew he couldn't let himself lose his cool just yet, at the same time though the fire was building as several other explosions were heard going off on the other side of the warehouse as old chemicals caught on fire_, _sending debris and flaming hot glass shards everywhere. He caught sight of Max and Rena crawling low to the ground, looking for something or someone.

Rena called out, coughing as the choking smoke entered her small lungs. "Kids! Children where are you! Say something!" In the chaos of everyone trying to leave, the feline couldn't hear anything over the frantic yells and cries of terrified felines to siphon out her children from everyone else. She noticed two small kittens lying on the far end of the warehouse near burning chairs and fallen beams.

"My darlings!" She yelled and hopped up and over to the two unconcious kittens lying near the fire. She clamped down on their fur on the back of their necks with her teeth, lifting them up and running toward the door, Max right along side of her the entire time as they fled for safety. Just as they came out of the door, a large air vent slammed over the exit, nearly smashing the last of the feeling felines. Rena sat her children down and counted,

"Oh my god where's my daughter?" Max's eyes jerked to the two kids laying on the ground, she was not kidding, the little girl was missing! He looked up at the door now blocked by an immobile air duct.

"Shit! The door's blocked!" He yelled trying to shove the heavy metal back unsuccessfully. Rena whipped her head around as three penguins ran up to them, "Where's Skipper and Julien? Did they make it out?" Rena shook her head fearfully, "I can't see them! My daughter's locked in there now with them!" Max gripped her shoulders, "Rena calm down, they'll get her out soon, just trust them." He said, Private nodded, he and the other two birds ran off to find another entry/exit for the missing animals.

Skipper coughed as he crawled through the thick smoke, "*cough* JULIEN! Where are you?".

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A/N, Haha suspense! Who will live to see another day, will Rena's daughter be found before its too late? Stay tuned my friends, stayed tuned and review!


	13. Trapped

A/N, Thank you all for the reviews and advice so far, I'm glad you've enjoyed this as much as I have. This chapter will be pretty intense due to the FLAMING WAREHOUSE!

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It was truly a sight to see in New York city that day, not that fires are uncommon in the area, but the large group of felines standing out and beside it felt almost out of place to any human walking by.

Rena was pulling at her fur as Max held her close, the two cats standing staring up at the clouds of smoke billowing through the cracks and broken windows of the place they'd once called home. Max was trying to hold strong on the outside but was terribly nervous on the inside, his king, his partner, his friend was trapped inside the flaming man made structure with Rena's daughter along with Skipper. He could only hold onto her and try to keep her calm so that he himself would be able to stay level headed and find a way out of this nightmare.

Near the base of the lemur's podium, Skipper shut his eyes and coughed, falling to the ground once again, his strength was failing as each minute came by as the fire built itself up, trapping him further, how had this gotten so out of hand so quickly? He squinted his eyes, in the pitch black clouds as they parted for a moment he could see a white tail with black rings dart off in another direction, toward the other side of the warehouse.

"RINGTAIL!" Skipper yelled, pushing himself to rise and run to where he'd seen the lemur just pass. His eyes finally caught sight of Julien as he scampered over to the left side of the warehouse and begin digging through debris,

"JULIEN WE NEED TO GO!" He called out, the lemur's head twisting his way and then went right back to digging fiercely. Skipper reached him and went to pull him away when the lemur yanked back the last piece of sheet metal, revealing a small back kitten laying unconscious. The ringtail wasted no time in grabbing her up and cradling her in his paws as he followed Skipper around looking for an exit. Skipper growled in frustration "Dammit! There's no way out of this mess, Julien why on earth didn't you set up emergency escape doors like every building in this city has?" The lemur shot him a look,

_Really? You're going to badger me about this now?_

They both looked around worriedly, Julien biting his lip trying to remain focused and not allow his panicking emotions to overcome his demeanor until they knew for sure they would not get out. It was becoming very difficult though, everywhere he saw fire and clouds of smoke reaching toward them like giant black paws, wishing to envelop them and suffocate the animals until they were broken enough to submit to the flames. He and the flightless bird raced across the burning kingdom, Skipper's eye catching sight of the lemurs throne. He then glanced over to the high windows of the room, all they needed was,

"Ringtail do you have anything that's rubbery like a band? The lemur looked around quickly, "all I have is dis belty thing off de machine from over there!" He quickly said running over to the device and picking up a piece of sharp metal and cutting it in half. He jumped back next to Skipper and handed over the belt. Skipper immediately stretched the belt, tying each side to the top points on the lemur's throne.

"Julien I need you're crown!"

"Wait what? Are you nutzo?" Skipper slapped a flipper over his face, "Julien we need to get that kid outta here and fast! I can't just send her through a window without any protection, she'll get hurt! Give me the crown!" Julien inwardly growled and pulled off the sign of his kinglyness. He hugged it a final time before handing it over to Skipper, the kitten resting in the crook of his left arm. Skipper pulled the band back and motioned for the lemur to set the little girl in the helmet like crown. Julien set her in tenderly giving her a good luck pat on the head as he helped Skipper with the band, both walking back to the edge of the platform.

Skipper looked at Julien, "On 3." Julien nodded,

"One.."

"Two.."

"THREE!" The two of them yelled as they released the band, sending the kitten crown flying toward the window. With a satisfying crash she was through and fell down to the snowbank.

Private Rico and Kowalski's attention was all suddenly diverted by a window just overhead of them breaking. They saw Julien's crown come crashing down to the little bit of snow left on the ground. Rico wasted no time in diving toward the snowbank to get underneath the helmet as it came down, he opened his wings and caught the headpiece with ease, a small black kitten falling onto his stomach unexpectedly. Max's eyes caught sight of the kitten on Rico's belly, they'd saved her!"

"Rena! RENA LOOK! They got her out! She's safe!" He cried out happily, Rena's who eyes had been filled with tears at the idea of losing her child to a fire, widened as she broke away from Max for a second and ran over to Rico, scooping up her child and clutching her closely to her chest.

"Oh darling you're alive! You're okay, thank goodness!" She said trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. She looked down at Rico, "Thank you for catching her." she said with a smile, Rico grinned and shook his head. Rena walked back with her in her arms to Max who smiled and hugged the two of them. The girl was safe, that much was over, he sighed in relief

Then reality hit,

The two close friends of his were still inside.

It wasn't long before The local fire department showed up, A large firetruck roaring down the street like a lion with an adrenaline rush made it's way to the front of the warehouse, sending the cats into hiding behind several cars and trashcans. The group watched as several men and women in yellow jackets and helmets jumped out of the truck setting up shop without a second moment's notice. A red Suburban rolled up behind the truck, one man getting out and ordering the humans in uniform to do certain things. One ran to the hydrant with a wrench and a hose from the truck while the others set up their oxygen tanks and put their masks on.

The chief spoke up,

"Alright from the looks of things we got ourselves one hell of a flaming trash bin, Georgy and Michael, I want you two outside watching the doors and windows, Ronny, Joscue and Sullivan I need you three inside searching the place."

"Searching for what chief?"

"Bums and shit I don't care, anyone or anything in there you get em out is that understood?" The greenhorn nodded, the chief patted him on the helmet,

"Alright now get the hell in there and try not to die! Move move move!" With that the men went to work on attempting to enter the building. A young greenhorn to the team looked over and saw something that forced him to raise an eyebrow, "Um sir there's a guy tied up in a snowdrift over by the side of the wall there." He said pointing to the unconscious officer X. The chief ran over the man, giving him a good shake,

"He's in shock, the ambulance should be on it's way, get the bolt cutters and cut off these damn chains rookie!" The boy set to work freeing the sleeping animal control officer as the other members of the FDNY began shoving the air duct, getting nowhere fast.

"I need the saw over here!" One of them called out. A large menacing tool was handed over, Rena and Max watched, the human gave a cord a wrench and then started the device, a loud and terrifying roar to life as the blade began to spin and chew into metal, sending sparks showering over the men as they stood awaiting an entry. The machine carved a large door into the air duct, the saw man going in first to work on another doorway as the others ran in behind him going down the air duct to get inside the warehouse.

Julien coughed with growing difficulty, he could barely receive any air now that wasn't polluted with toxic fumes mixed in with smoke, making him lightheaded and unable to see. He blindly reached out a paw to feel around, where was Skipper? "*cough cough* I *cough* can't see Skippah! Help!" He cried rubbing his eyes with his paws, they stung like a honet's wound and forced him to squint, nearly unable to see a foot in front of him. He took a step backwards and slipped off.

"SKIPPAH!" He cried out in fear as he fell, the bird caught him just able to reach his paw in time. Julien looked down at the flaming destruction below him, there was bits of rebar and broken concrete mixed in with cracked up spikes of wood on fire from where a beam had already collapsed. Skipper looked at him worriedly, he knew Julien was losing his grip, the bird prayed his would hang strong as he tried to pull the mammal up. The lemur was shaking with terror right now, if he fell now, the only thing to greet him at the bottom was sharp and red hot, he would be impaled several different ways if he fell straight down as if falling into the devil's mouth. Perhaps it was the idea of pain that scared him so, the dream he'd conjured in his own mind of burning alive was becoming more and more of a possibility every second.

The bird grabbed his paw with both flippers, using his feet to hold him upright as he pulled the lemur up, "Julien Hang on you're almost there!" He said backing up the last few feet, he could practically feel the lemur's racing nerves as he held onto him. They got off the throne area and back down to the main floor, feeling their way through the smoke, Skipper stopped for a second, Julien bumping into him, "Gah what is-" Skipper grabbed a piece of ripped curtain, tearing it into a large triangle. He pulled Julien's head down closer to him, the lemur's bright orange and yellow eyes asking the bird what was he planning to do? Julien found the bird soon wrapping the cloth around his muzzle and behind his head, trying a knot to secure it. Skipper made one for himself right then, "Easier to breath." He said, Julien nodded, the bird turned away and started to move forward when he felt the lemur tap him on the shoulder,

"Julien what is it?" The lemur wrapped him up in a hug, he was shaking with fear, he just wanted to get out of this place alive and unhurt. Skipper groaned and hugged the lemur back, "Warm fuzzies when we get outta here Ringtail, just stick with me alright?" He said quickly patting Julien on the back. The lemur nodded and stood up straight and followed Skipper. They headed in a few feet, Skipper saw light flashing around at the front entrance, fireman! They were saved! All they had to do was-

The problem was, Skipper began to think, letting his paranoia get a hold of him. If the fireman got a hold of a penguin and a lemur in an abandoned warehouse, the zoo would most likely cage them immediately, setting up an entire overhead and surrounding fence around them. That wasn't an option, they needed to get out of this with stealth, granted it up'd the stakes but all the sweeter would be the victory. Julien crawled up beside the penguin, "Ooh are dose the firing men?" He asked, Skipper tried to think on his webbed feet for an excuse for the ringtail."Um Julien those are actually really dangerous men, they attack penguins and lemurs all the time around here, you'll have to stay right with me okay?" The lemur groaned in displeasure but agreed and keep behind Skipper crawling through the tunnels of debris the two of them could fit into. Biting his lip to keep quiet, the lemur felt his furry side catch on a sharp piece of metal, scratching into his skin and drawing a bit of blood. He whimpered and held his side trying to keep up with the penguin but Skipper was going faster than the lemur could keep up with. He saw him begin to slide on his belly underneath the rubble and flames and after only a few minutes, he was gone from sight.

"Skippah? SKKIIPPAAHH?" He called out to the smoke, nothing responded,

the flightless bird had made it out without him. The lemur's heart almost stopped.

Was he really not going to come back for him?

"SKIPPER! FLIGHTLESS BIRD WHERE ARE YOU!" He yelled desperately, his eyes darting all over the room for anything to give him hope the penguin was returning to help him out,

But there was only the sound of burning wood and sizzling metal around him.

Julien began to be overcome with his fear, his eyes shut as he panicked and began to run through the rubble, dodging the scary tall masked figures who carried sharp metal things by their side with giant tanks on their backs. He opened his eyes as he ran just as he tripped over a stray piece of re bar, his body went sailing toward a mess of sharp objects, wooden and metal with concrete bits in grated into it,

Everything went black for a few seconds.

The lemur dizzily shook his head and got focused, he was still in danger, still trapped in the burning kingdom he'd prided himself on creating. He got up to move on but quickly dropped down again as he found something heavy now resting on top of his left paw. He sat up and began shoving the iron beam away or trying at least, no result in his efforts unfortunately. His movements caused serious pain to his locked in paw. The mammal tried pulling straight back immediately howling out in pain as he felt his limb searing in terrible agony. He panted heavily as the reality hit him,

He couldn't move,

Skipper didn't stop to see if he was okay.

The fire was getting larger and closing in on him.

The lemur was going to die here. Julien's eyes welled up and he sat down, his teeth clamped on his quivering lower lip as he began to give up. The tears of his pain, his understanding that he would not get to see his queen ever again, his friends Maurice and Mort, started pouring down his cheeks and onto his chest as he whimpered and broke down. He hugged his long fluffy tail for all it was worth, the last bit of security he had left before he had to endure the lethal flames on his body. He begged for the evil monster firing men to just find him first and do whatever it was they did to subdue their prey, he only asked that it was quick and painless. The ringtail tucked himself into a small hug and waited for the end. He flinched as a large piece of reinforced concrete lifted off from over top of him. He peeked an eye out and looked up, there was a large humanoid creature looming over him holding a sharp object, staring down at him through a mask and helmet, the fire making it's expression even more terrifying. The creature suddenly dropped the axe it carried, looking over to another of it's kind,

"Hey Ronny we got a raccoon over here! Aye give me a hand the lil guy looks like he's stuck under this beam!" He said to the other one standing next to him. Julien didn't hear them, he had his eyes shut tightly preparing for the death blow.

Unexpectedly however that did not play out, the lemur sudden felt the pain easing on his paw as the two large human creatures both grabbed at the beam over his hand and lifted up, freeing his paw. The ringtail squeaked in worry as he suddenly felt himself being picked up around the waist. The fireman held him up and tucked him into his jacket, his fingers holding up Julien's long fluffy tail from the surrounding fire.

One of the other humans suddenly yelled out in alarm "GET DOWN!" Julien felt the man drop to the floor with him tucked into the fireman's arm as they hit the concrete. From his dark and tight position, he couldn't tell what had just happened, the human wasn't moving anymore. The ringtail snuck out of the man's jacket and looked around, hearing a voice off in the distance.

_ The damn roof just caved in on two of our guys, we need to dig em out now! _The african mammal scurried away from the area, looking back to see a pile of metal and wood where he'd just been. Julien turned back to find himself facing-

"Skipper?" Julien gasped as he saw the penguin. It wasn't a comforting sight, the arctic bird was laying on his side, unconscious with a small pool of blood coming out of his mouth, the lemur rushed to his side, tapping him on the shoulder as he dropped to a knee beside the bird.

"Skipper are you okay?" The penguin's eye lazily dragged itself open, looking at Julien's fearful orange eyes. He groaned as he managed to lift a wing and point in the direction he'd been heading before the roof had fallen down on all of them. Looking up, Julien saw the gleam of light near the wall, there was an opening for them! Julien jumped in the air and clapped his paws, "Oh you smarty flightless bird! Let's be getting out of here!" He said, grabbing hold of the bird's wings and pulling with all his might to get the penguin out from underneath the bit of ceiling he was under. Skipper shook himself free and tried to get to his feet but then collapsed to the ground, a terrible pain shooting up his small leg. Skipper winced from the sudden jolt of pain,

_Shit it's broken! _His mind told him, Julien began to start heading out when he turned to see the bird hadn't moved.

"Come on we cannot stay we have to go now!" He yelled to Skipper, The bird shook his head and motioned to his foot which was bent at an improper place. The ringtail ran his paws over his furry face as his mind raced to find an idea. Glancing over he saw a board long enough to fit the penguin onto, without a word the lemur shoved Skipper onto the plank of wood and grabbed the other end dragging him to the wall. The lemur had to grit his teeth and growl in agony as he used his crushed paw to hold onto the other side of the board trying to support the penguin's weight. Within ten minutes of labored breathing and strained muscled, the ringtail got the penguin to the other side up against the wall. Inspecting the hole, the lemur found he could barely get his head through it. He peeked out and saw more of the fireman rushing into the warehouse, the cats were hiding behind the tires, he put his paws to his muzzle and called out to his subjects within his sights.

"My subjects! We need help here!" One of the gray felines turned his head, seeing Julien's face in the side of the wall, the cat rushed over on all fours to get instructions from the lemur. "What is it you need to get out my king?" Julien looked back at Skipper for a sec, trying to think of what could get them out of here the fastest, his fingertips snapped together,

"De Penguins! Bring them over to me and they can help us escape!" The feline nodded and ran off around the corner, Julien sat beside the penguin as they waited for the help to arrive. Skipper looked up at Julien, "Ringtail..

Julien looked down at his arctic friend, pondering what he was about to say.

"Um yes?"Skipper heaved a breath as he sat up on his elbows of his wings as he looked at the lemur. "Don't think this automatically wins you the rights to our T.V" He said with a small smile. The lemur's eyes narrowed, "You know I don't HAVE to bring you out of here." The penguin's eyes widened in shock,

"Julien I can't walk-" The lemur held up a paw, a childish grin on his face. Skipper groaned and fell back on the wooden plank, this was going to be a long day.

Several minutes later three penguins arrived to the side where the lemur and penguin both laid on the other side of, Private looked in the hole.

"Skippah, are you alright?" The penguin lifted his head and looked over through the hole to see his cadet on the other side,

"Private I'm one leg short of walking away from this, we can't fit through so we need to get a bigger exit." Hearing this, the scarred bird's face grew with excitement, clapping his wings together, eagerly looking over at Kowalski as he hacked up a stick of dynamite. "Kaboom?"

Kowlaski studied the structure, "I'm not sure about that Rico, if you blow this wall out, all that glass will shatter and possibly hit Skipper.

"AHEM!" An annoyed cough was sounded through the wall, Kowlaski rolled his eyes "and Julien might get hurt as well. Skipper do you know of anything else we can use?" Rico whined and tucked the dynamite back down his throat, awaiting a request of what proper too to use. Skipper groaned and snarled, "I don't care what MIGHT happen Kowlaski there's a chance it WON'T so do whatever will get us the hell out of here!" Rico hacked up a small string of C4 cubes the size of ketchup packets, Kowlaski took several quick notes on his clipboard and then nodded to Rico. The explosives expert began sticking them in a circular pattern along the wall and then backed away with the remote in his flipper.

Kowlaski, "We're going to blow it now so get out of the way." Julien winced as he stood back up and dragged his flightless friend out of the way once more. Kowlaski gave the signal to Rico who leaped up in joy, squeezing the button down.

*KABOOM*

The three birds were knocked back by the force of the explosion, Skipper opened his eyes and glanced at the hole now triple the size it had once been.

"Well done Rico, now get my butt back to HQ, Ringtail also!" He ordered as Kowlaski and Private came in and pulled him out the last few feet from the building. Julien got back on his feet and began walking forward to the birds when a loud shattering sound was heard.

"RINGTAIL!" Skipper yelled as glass came flying down to earth in jagged pointed shards, like teeth from the jaws of a shark closing in on the lemur. The ringtail gasped and went to dive out of the way, his body dropping into the snow as a large triangular shard dropped down and fell into the lemur's side. Julien let out an ear piercing shriek of pain as he felt the heated glass impale his body, digging in several inches which for a small mammal was almost close to running the glass all the way through the lemur's body.

Rena and Max came running over, hearing Julien's cry, Max saw the giant piece sticking straight out of the lemur's side upright as he lay in the snowbank, causing him to faint instantly. Rena gasped as she pulled her paws to her face, running over to the lemur's side.

"Oh my gosh Julien!" She cried out dropping beside him, Kowlaski quickly got between the two mammals. "Don't move him, I need to make this piece more manageable or it'll sink in deeper, Rico hammer!" He ordered, the scarred bird quickly hacked up a ball pen hammer and handed it to Kowlaski who took hold of the glass and looked at Julien who's face was scrunched tight in supressed agony.

"Julien this is going to hurt but I need to get the rest of this glass away ok?" He said to the lemur, trying to keep him calm. The ringtail gritted his teeth and looked away, Kowlaski in one quick smack, knocked the glass shard in half, breaking it off clean, the lemur still had a large piece in his side but at least now was movable. Skipper looked over at his teammates, "Boys we need to get to Alice and fast, Rico, you're on driving duty, Private, you and Kowalski sit up front, Julien and I'll be in the backseat." The birds nodded and as Rico brought the track covered pink car around, Kowalski and Private hoisted Skipper in first sitting him upright on one side, they then looked down at the lemur who was beginning to shiver as large amounts of blood started leaking out each side of the lodged in glass. Rena helped the penguins heaved the lemur's body carefully into the car. Julien was laid down, his head in Skipper's lap, his muzzle brushing against the bird's white feathers. Skipper tried not to feel uncomfortable as he felt the lemur's shuddering breaths close to his crotch, he could tell the lemur wasn't exactly thrilled with the seating arrangement as well. He turned to look over at Kowlaski for an explanation, the genius sighed.

"You needed to keep Julien's head level to keep his blood from rushing all upwards and toward the wound." The lemur tried to mutter something, forcing Skipper to pull back,

"Aghh Ringtail don't nuzzle me when you're face is in my lap okay? It just feels weird." He said, Julien groaned and lifted his head up to see Skipper's face, "Oh so you're de uncomfortable one, yeah I always like having my kingly face jammed up next you your- Kowalski turned around in his head, "Will you two keep it down back there, we're almost to the zoo!" Skipper sighed in defeat and laid back, trying to give Julien a tad more room, wincing as he felt his leg begin speaking up in aching pain. Rico drove straight into the zoo, not minding to check for people, he had a more important thing to do. With an easing foot on the brakes, the car came to a stop outside the zookeeper's office. The three birds helped Julien out of the car first, laying him on the paving stones, reaching in next to get Skipper and dragged him out of the car, setting him next to Julien. Private looked at the pool of blood in the back seat of the car, his worry increasing as he saw the lemur struggling to stay awake, but beginning to lose the fight, his head resting against the cold paving stones. Rico quickly rolled the car into their secret parking garage as the other two penguins tosses pebbles at the office door.

Alice came out in her typical storming manner, "Alright who's the wise guy-" Her voice suddenly cut off as she saw the two injured creatures at her doorstep.

"What in God's name happened to you two." She said to herself, seeing the lemur with the glass stuck in his side. She kicked the door open and called for assistance from the vet, a man in a white lab coat showing up next to her, taking a knee and looking over the penguin and the lemur. "It looks like the glass is in quite deep, he'll need to be in surgery for at least a few hours, not to mention, this paw looks very damaged." Alice nodded and motioned to the penguin, the zoo doctor eyeballed Skipper's leg, "I can only tell you right now that it's most likely broken, I'll need xrays of it to find out where to go from here, help me carry these two in would you?" Alice without a word scooped up Skipper and cradled him in her arms as the doctor gently picked up the bleeding lemur, trying not to move him very much at all, it was unsure to him how extensive the inner damage was so he had to play it safe as he carried the animal in. Alice laid Skipper on the table next to where the doctor had set the lemur. As the humans turned their backs Skipper looked over at Julien, the lemur looked twice as bad as when he'd first gotten impaled, even through his fur, Skipper could see the ringtail's face paling, Julien didn't even raise his head to look at Skipper, merely wincing and staring over at him with a worried eye.

Skipper breathed deep and gave a strong look at Julien, "Don't worry Ringtail, you're gonna be okay?", The lemur could only whimper and shut his eyes from how much pain he was in. The doctor wheeled in a small cart with a pillowed mat on top and gently set the lemur down on it, wheeling him away from the penguin and toward the hallway to surgery. Skipper laid back against the counter as Alice began gathering the supplies for the Xray, his eyes never leaving the hallway.

_At least I hope so._

_

* * *

_Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Sorry I almost fell there, ANYWAY the kingdom Max and Julien worked so hard to build has been brought down to nothing, where will the cats go now? What will happen with Julien in surgery? What of Rena and her kids? All shall be looked at in the next coming chapter, keep you're ideas coming people, they only improve this story! Reviews if you may I do like to get everyone's opnions! Thank you and I will see you in the next chapter._  
_


	14. Living is out of my paws

The ringtailed lemur could barely keep his open as his mind pleaded with him to sleep, to let go and rest as the doctor wheeled him into the emergency room. Last thing he was aware of was the horrific pain he'd been in for the last few minutes. His head felt so heavy and his vision continuously blurred as he felt the cart stop in a bright white room where several other humans stood in blue clothes from top to bottom with gloves and even what appeared to him as bags on their heads, hiding their hair from his sight. He lifted his head an inch off the towel, weakly trying to look around and figure out where they'd taken him. He was soon face to face with a adult female, looming over him with some kind of device with hoses attached to it, she slowly twisted the knob on a large metallic canister to the left, the object in her other hand now made a hissing noise as air came blowing out of it. She laid her free hand down on his shoulder and neck as he looked up worriedly, his mind jumped at the first possible conclusion.

_No! They're putting you to sleep! All because you are hurt now and can't entertain the humans any longer! They're killing you because you're worthless!_

Using his last reserves of strength, the ringtail whined and shoved a paw up at her direction, swiping at the device as she began to bring it down to his muzzle. Julien frantically, in his fatigued state, wriggled and shifted around the most he could, his attempts feeling so very futile as the doctor held him in place. Finally Julien began to shake as he felt the mask coming closer, the hissing growing louder as it came face to face with him. Giving a small yowl, he succumbed to the strong female's hand holding him in place. Julien closed his eyes, not resisting anymore,

it was over for him. He was going to be put down like a normal unwanted street pet like how Max had told him when he'd asked about places such as the pound. The hissing mask came over his muzzle snugly as the woman pulled a band over the back of his head to hold it in place.

He dropped his head as his eyes grew too heavy to support anymore, he had to shut them and allow this to take it's course, to take him and bring him to the other side. Julien's last visions were of the female in blue, her soft brown eyes staring down at him, he could practically see a smile underneath her face mask, her expression prompting one final annoyed thought in his kingly mind.

How dare she be so pleased to end the life of a king.

* * *

Back in the HQ, Rico, Kowlaski and Private slide back into their habitat once they'd seen the doctor and Alice cart off Julien and Skipper to the zoo emergency room. Kowlaski closed the fishbowl lid behind them as the three birds dropped down into the HQ. Private acknowledged no one as he went over to his bunk and sat down, his wing reaching under his pillow for a Butterscotch Winky, slowly unraveling it in his flippers. Kowlaski sighed and headed toward his lab, stopped for a second by Rico who gestured to the youngest of the troop with his beak. The tall bird glanced at Private who sat alone with his small treat, staring at the floor with a look of sadness crossing into deep worry as he lightly munched on his piece of candy.

Kowlaski wanted to be able to comfort Private, blindly lying to the young bird that Julien and Skipper would be fine, that he had nothing to worry about. However, his intellect held him in a difficult reality he knew he would have to accept. Julien's injury was no small matter, he'd lost a great deal of blood from the glass already, not to mention whether he'd experienced additional internal bleeding as well, forcing his predicament to an honestly doubtful outcome. The tall bird could only look back at Rico who stared at him with near pleading eyes to give the boy some kind of mental ease, something to calm the waves of the young cadet's fragile outlook on life.

Rico seemed to feel the subconscious truth that had yet to be spoken but refused to merely give into it, a childlike perception of what Kowalski had once seen as hope or faith. He'd never been one to see the world as anything beyond that of scientific reasoning, it was just how he'd lived for so long, once you've ingrained a certain viewpoint, you must stick with it through the thick and the thin. What separated Kowlaski from the other two birds was he'd tossed hope away years ago. It wasn't something he enjoyed, more often then not it was quite hard on the smart penguin to not be able to see things in a different light then the others did.

The tall bird shook his head at Rico's request and went to his lab, leaving the explosives expert alone with the young cadet. Rico slumped his shoulders and went over by his dolly, picking her up and holding her close to his chest, his beak tucking itself into the strands of fake hair and plastic as he held it for a moment. Rico wasn't one to bond with anyone, to make close friends or good pals with animals outside of his team, they were all he needed. There was something however, about that ringtailed lemur that had sunk in past his strong shield against connecting with others, the absolute joy he'd once felt when they'd gone on their little personal outings together, blowing one thing up after another. He'd been so comfortable being in his realm of what he loved, and with someone who embraced it as he'd always desired. The lemur had always been an annoyance for the penguins in the zoo but at that same time, he'd never turn down the ringtail's company, to the scarred penguin Julien was somewhat entertaining. Now that the lemur was on the edge of dying, the explosives expert felt actual sadness in his heart at the idea of the lemur king being gone forever. He looked over at Private, still holding his dolly, the scarred bird got up and approached the young bird and sat by him without a word.

"Rico…I'm really worried right now. Julien's gotten hurt before but now it's way more than I've ever seen." The older bird nodded with a grunt of agreement, stroking his doll's face with a flipper as he tried not to look Private, the young bird continued.

"If Julien does..*gulp* die..what are we gonna tell Marlene? It was our job to keep him safe and now look what happened."

Rico turned from Private and looked over at the wall they faced, his mind coming to no quick response, it wasn't like telling someone they wrecked their car or something, it was something else entirely. They weren't aware of how strong of a bond the lemur and otter had together, what they meant to each other which made things very tough in deciding how to handle the situation should it come to the lemur passing away. Rico looked back down at Private, who'd finished his treat and was beginning to tremble slightly, the scarred bird took a big glup to suppress his gag reflex on what he considered mushy stuff and slipped a wing across Private's back, pulling the cadet in next to him. The young bird looked up at Rico, clearly holding back his desire to break down and just rested his head under Rico's wing, closing his eyes as he shuddered to stifle a whine. The two birds stayed put for a minute, both not saying a word, the silence was comforting enough for both of them as they awaited their commander's return.

* * *

Skipper's beak clenched shut as he tried to stand now fitted with a small cast formed by Alice for him, his leg hurt less now, but it still managed to force the veteran bird to grit his beak in pain every time he moved. He forced himself up and looked around, Alice and the doctor had left him in the cage on the table after wrapping up his leg, now he was alone in the checkup room. The bird groaned as he brought his wings to the lock and shoved the bars open, freeing the door for him to get out, he had to get back to the team with an update.

But first,

The bird dragged his foot as gently as he could without sending shivers of pain through his body, getting toward the hallway they'd taken the lemur to work on. With his two wings, he flipped himself upwards and toward the doorknob, swinging to the left to open it. He landed on his stomach, diving into a serpentine slide down the glossy checkered floor as he headed toward where Julien was being held. Sliding down against the wall of the hospital, he could hear voices growing louder as he came closer. Giving a weak hop, he maneuvered his way to the window of the emergency room. There were at least four humans inside the room, all with their backs to him as they focused on what was on the table in front of them, a large white overhead light gleamed down to provide the doctors with ideal precision in their efforts. As one doctor in the middle shuffled away to grab something, Skipper got a look at the ringtail, it was a sight he'd never expected. The lemur he'd come to know and in a very odd way become friends with, lay on the metallic table, his eyes shut as he lay motionless, a small mask attached over his muzzle. The lemur lay on his side with a gigantic gaping hole in his side, held open with several surgical implements and tubes running into his wound, his fur and flesh peeled back along his side for easy access by the human doctors as they continued working on the glass embedded in the lemur's body. Thoughts began to circulate through his mind,

_why Julien? _

_Why had he been forced to suffer this immeasurable harm?_ The egotistical control freak known as Julien hadn't deserved this, the pain he had to endure on his way to the zoo, the fear he must have been so wrapped up in, all things this lemur did not bring on himself. Skipper tried to keep his eyes on Julien's face, his bright eyes covered by black eyelids, his ears tilting forward slightly. He looked so peaceful and innocent, as if just taking a small daytime nap and not being worked on by several humans with vicious looking instruments in their hands.

Skipper turned away, he didn't want to look back at his friend on the operating table, opened up and being plucked at with stainless steel tools. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, it was time to go, he needed to get back home to the HQ.

Just as he'd taken the first step forward, his sensitive hearing picked up a small curse uttered from one of the doctors as a door to the ER swished open and closed. Skipper flinched and turned around, his need to know getting the better of him as he climbed back to the window.

"Damn." One of the doctors turned to his coworker on the left,

"what is it?"

"The shard cracked into more pieces, its gonna be a fun time trying to remove these." The operating surgeon answered coolly. He held out a hand,"Pass me the tongs."

"Here you are Dr." The assistant replied, setting the tool in the surgeon's hand and watched as he began to go to work on the shards. As he began to pull out a long sliver shard of the window glass, he saw the lemur's stomach brush against the edge of the shard, he stopped immediately, waiting for the lemur's organ to retract back enough for him to remove the piece without cutting open the animal's stomach. The nurse next to him watched the surgeon closely as he maneuvered the glass away from the critical areas inside the lemur, finally pulling it free and dropping it into a metal bowl next to Julien's body. The doctor managed to work out another piece within a few minutes with a careful and precise hand. Breaths were suspended as the lead doctor worked steadily, his fingers moving like a machine's gears, jewel movements as his brain siphoned through all the incorrect moves, leaving him only with what would save the lemur's life.

"He's going to need a blood transplant, he's already lost more then can be regained naturally."

"Do you have the blood type?"

"Yes, it's in a folder on the desk, can you grab it and tell my secretary to make some calls to the local surrounding zoos in NY and even outside sources, if it has to be flown in then fine but he'll need it within 48 hours." The nurse left with her instructions as the other doctors finished the glass removal as began ties on the inside trauma accomplished by the destructive piece of window. Each human worked with a rhythmic and timed preparation that allowed in a somewhat ease on each others minds as things began to go fluently and without much fuss.

After a final hour, the lemur was stitched shut for the time being. He would have to remain unconscious and attached to an IV line of saline solution and other fluids to keep him alive until the transplant arrived. The second in lead doctor injected an anesthetic into the ringtail's shoulder as the gas was slowly shut off and the mask was removed. The lead surgeon ran a finger over the lemur's head, a comforting gesture to the little mammal that things would be alright soon enough. He and the nurse wheeled the mammal back into one of the cages along the back wall of the ER, carefully lifting him up and setting his sleeping body down on the cushion inside the cage, hands maneuvering out of the way of the tubes near the IV. The humans stepped out of the room, leaving a light on in the far corner of the room as to not encase the mammal in utter darkness should he awake.

The penguin hoisted himself up once more to see the lemur when-

"Gah THERE you are! I leave for one second and you're all the way over here, I knew you birds were trouble." Groaned Alice, scooping up the penguin and hauling him off to the penguin habitat. She set the plank of wood down for her to cross into the enclosure and set him down, staring down at him for a sec.

"Don't think about going anywhere!" She warned to the bird for good measure, whether it could understand her she wasn't concerned, all she wanted was to know she did everything she had to. Giving him one last look, she turned and walked away and pulled back the board from the habitat and headed back to her office. Skipper rolled his eyes and cracked open the hatch, climbing down the ladder into the HQ. He looked over and saw Rico holding Private who appeared to have fallen asleep with Kowalski nowhere in sight, Rico looked up and saw him,

"Eh Eh!" Rico vocalized, nudging the sleeping bird next to him to awake, Private shook his head as his eyes focused on Skipper.

"Skippah!" He exclaimed, The leader stood at attention,

"Yes, yes, I'm here, where's Kowlaski?" Both birds motioned over to the lab, Skipper shook his head and muttered under his breath as he went to yell.

"KOWALSKI!" He bellowed, watching the bird genius quickly pop out of his laboratory.

"Ah Skipper, you're back!"He said with a waving of his wing to his commanding officer. Skipper held up a wing to stop him,

"Pleasantries will have to wait men because we've got work to do and the time is now to do it!" He said, wishing to jump right into action and get plans in order sooner rather than later. "Err What are the plans Skippah, what's Julien's condition?"Private said.

"Not good boys, the doc got the foul playing pieces of glass out of-

"Pieces? There was only one when I last saw him." Kowalski interjected without thinking, Skipper looked to Rico, the crazed bird nodded his head and gave Kowalski a smack against the back of the head.

"Err Sorry Skipper, go on." Kowalski mumbled slightly embarrassed at his own outburst.

"AS I was saying! The ringtail's free of the glass shards, now he needs a blood donor, someone with the same blood type as he to get him back to full health, he's not outta the woods by a long shot." Skipper said in a strong tone. Private spoke up, "So what can we do to help? The doctors should be able to handle this faster, they have a better understanding of the systems of delivery for medical supplies and *gulp* blood and stuff." Skipper shook his head,"Men let me ask you this, do you want to have to find out that our ringtailed friend loses this fight due to a human's inability to do their job? Look at Holboken Zoo, that cesspool is exactly where the doctors are going to look first, we need to get ahold of the delivery and get it into the ER faster then the humans, I owe Ringtail that much." He finished his speech and was met with teary eyed soldiers before him, Kowalski took a step forward,

"That was *sniff* so motivating." He said, wiping the tears from his beak. Skipper groaned,

"Just get the plans ready, its two hours till closing, we move out at 6pm!" He said, the three birds nodded in compliance, Private raised a wing,

"Um what do we do for the time being?" Skipper looked at him and then at the others,

"For the time being, we need to tell the other lemurs and Marlene what's happened."Skipper said, uneasy with what had to be done. Telling someone their close friend or family member was in danger of losing their life was something he'd never wanted to do. The teammates silently agreed and followed their leader as they went through the underground pipeline to the lemur habitat.

Maurice noticed the penguins popping up in the back of the pedestal, he took Mort's paw and headed over to them.

"Skipper what's going on?" Skipper took in a breath and blew it out slowly, " I have something I have to tell you about Julien." His eyes soon fell upon Mort's own who stared up at him innocently, "Ahem, err could you possibly have sad eyes here take a walk, not something he should hear really." Maurice's face went from surprised to worried, he ushered Mort off to the smoothie bar with orders of a complicated smoothie to buy the group some time together.

"Okay what is this about? Where's Julien?" Maurice asked, folding his paws over his chest, Skipper looked him in the eyes,

"Julien was hurt badly at the warehouse when a fire broke out, he's in surgery right now, it's...it's unknown if he'll survive or not." Skipper said, trying to force the last and most painful bit out of his beak, feeling its distaste with every vowel. Maurice's eyes widened, unsure of how to respond to this. His mind quickly flashed through all the times he'd been with his lemur king and friend, all their adventures, mostly through his insane requests and demands. The news that his friend he'd been with nearly all his life could possibly pass away was truly something the lemur wasn't prepared to hear.

"H-How did this happen?" He asked, Skipper held up a wing, "Julien's hurt Maurice, that's what's important, we're on our way to aid him the best we can but we wanted you to know about this." He said, Maurice's ears fell as he took a seat, he breathed real slowly and looked over at Mort who busied himself with making fruit drinks, he turned back to the penguins.

"If Julien doesn't make it, what will I tell Mort? I don't think he can handle something like this, it'll be too much for him. Heck it's almost too much for myself." He said wiping a tear away with his arm. Skipper looked down at the lemur,

"Don't tell him anything until we've done everything we can. For all Mort knows right now is Julien is at the warehouse, let him think that for a bit longer okay?" He said, Maurice gulped and nodded, choking down his brewing emotions and doing his best to remain strong, he couldn't lose his composure now, he had to remain strong, for Julien.

"Just do everything you can and then some okay?" He asked of the penguins, they all silently nodded and made their exit as stealthily as they'd entered. Maurice walked over and took a seat at the smoothie bar next to Mort who finished his and looked over at his roommate.

"Where did the penguins go?"he asked,

"They left a few minutes ago." Maurice said in a depressed tone, the mouse lemur picked up on the gray lemur's voice. "Maurice why are you sounding all sad?" Maurice rubbed his eyes and looked over at Mort, he took a deep breath and set a forced smile on his face.

"I'm just missing our buddy Julien." He said, trying not to panic the mouse lemur.

"Yeah me too." Mort replied, nuzzling into Maurice's side, the gray lemur gave a small grin and rubbed Mort's head with a steady paw, watching more and more visitors depart as the day came to a close at the Central Park Zoo.

* * *

The four penguins stood before Marlene's habitat, each waiting for the other to make the first move to find the otter. Skipper gulped, he knew this wasn't going to be easy on her, especially due to the fact they were not sure if Julien would pull through even with their help. The leader looked down the tunnel of the cave and back to his troops.

"Let's go boys." He said, moving to serpentine down the cave floor to Marlene's den, the others followed formally down the entry way behind their leader to confront the otter of Julien's dire situation. They stopped behind Skipper who stood and hobbled over to the living room where they soon found Marlene sitting on her couch doing a drawing as she sat back.

"Oh hey guys, what's up! Whoa what happened to your leg Skipper?" She said in a cheery voice, Skipper sighed as he looked over at her.

_why is this soo hard to say?_

Skipper looked into Marlene's eyes, his face dead serious, causing her to feel quite uneasy very quickly. She looked over at the rest of the penguins who's faces wore disappointment, worry and sadness. The otter frowned,

"What's up with you guys, why the sad faces?" She asked, no one could seem to speak at that moment, they could only stand silently as statues. Marlene's face began to fill with dread as she looked back at Skipper.

"What happened to Julien? Where is he?" Her voice presenting the new emotion of genuine fear as she asked the leader of the flightless birds to respond.

"Marlene, Julien's in serious trouble. There was a fire in the warehouse that got out of control, Ringtail saved me from burning alive in there but on the way out, a window broke and he got hurt severely." The bird said in a slow breath, Marlene's widened eyes began to form tears, her body feeling a large tremor run from her knees to her neck.

"Where is he?"

"He's in surgery right now, he's lost too much blood so he needs a donation to stay alive. We're working on a plan to make that happen, I'm sorry Marlene." The bird's last words seemed to crash into the otter like a semi truck on the highway, she suddenly gritted her teeth and glared up at him and the others.

"You're sorry? You were supposed to protect him in case he got hurt like you always say you do! You were supposed to get him out safe but no you're just SORRY?" She yelled, her emotions getting the best of her at this point. Skipper tried to remain still as a statue, not showing any weakness but found himself trembling slightly. He opened his beak but his voice box closed, his eyes leaving hers and dropping to the floor as he hung his head in shame. Marlene was right, all this time he'd stomped on the idea that anyone could take care of the zoo's population as well as he and his team could and now his ringtailed best friend was paying the price for his arrogance. He looked down at the floor, unable to look back up at Marlene's piercing eyes of judgment, she was mad and have every right to be at him, her lover could die and it would be all his fault.

The otter took a step back, slowing her breathing and calming herself, she covered her eyes with her paws, "Skipper I'm so sorry, that wasn't fair of me, I know you guys didn't mean to let Julien get hurt, I just...I'm really scared for him now." She apologized to the broken penguin who's fallen face read her words had dug deep into the bird's heart. She walked up to him and lifted his beak with a paw, his blue eyes slowly rose back up and looked at her, she sighed and wrapped her paws around him in a hug. It was obvious both he and she could use some comforting at this place in time with everything that was going on. She felt Skipper reach up and wipe a tear from his beak as he rested his head against hers, finally lowering his guard for the otter and giving an honest emotion to her, he was scared for the future.

"It'll be alright, I know you guys will find a way to help him before its too late." She said, doing her best to be encouraging, the bird patted her on the back as he slipped from the hug finally.

"Thanks Marlene, you can count on us." he replied with a smile on his beak. He turned to his team and signaled to move out. The birds left the habitat just as the last of the viewers were making their way out of the zoo. Skipper looked to the clock, they had an hour until it was go time for their latest of operations to be put into play. They slide back into the HQ without a soul seeing them, once inside, the leader looked to his team.

"Gentlemen this is going to be one for the record books because I want this objective completed with time to spare, understood?" The birds simultaneously nodded in agreement,

"We don't just have our credibility on the line on this one boys, there's a friend's life at stake here and I know you all well enough to expect you to do everything you can in order to make this happen for Ringtail. Now as for the plan, I believe the best way to gain our Intel is through Alice's computer, once we've acquired the address of where the pickup will be, we'll be there before the humans get an excuse to screw it up. After we've gotten the donation, we slip back to the zoo ER and have it ready and waiting for the doc, understood?"

Rico, Kowlaski and Private saluted their leader and nodded firmly. Skipper grinned and set his wings at his waist,

"Good, let's make it happen! To the computer men!"

* * *

A/N, Well I hope this was an enjoyable chapter for you all, I'm glad so many of you are still following my story, its been so helpful with all the ideas and advice I've gotten from everyone here that have made this story even better then what I could have expected! Thank you all and if you may, please keep you're reviews coming, I never tire of them :)


	15. Running for blood

A/N, Gather round everyone gather round! I am glad to see many of you have returned to view the latest chapter in my story Journey to the Center of my Worth and it has been quite a ride I must tell you! Thank you for all your support and ideas that have built this story to what it is now. I ask you to keep your reviews coming, I enjoy every one of them.

* * *

*click*

*eerk*

*KaChunk*

The door of the continually frustrated Zookeeper sounded as it was closed for the evening. Alice's large boots sounded as they stomped along the cool brick walkway as she headed for the Zoo gate. With a sigh she reached over and yanked at both of the gates, bringing them together in a swish and a clang. Clicking the lock shut and giving it a pull to check, the zookeeper turned and exited out the side door, locking it behind her as she headed for her car, unaware that four penguins were trailing her every move. As they saw her close the door to her car and start the engine, the four birds saw their opportunity to act.

Skipper slid to the doorway of the zookeeper's office and signaled the others to follow, once everyone was nearby, they hopped on eachother's shoulders to reach the doorknob.

Kowlaski eyed the lock,

"Rico, paperclip!" The penguin requested, Rico down at the bottom hacked up a paper clip and tossed it upward to the penguin of science. Kowlaski bent the clip several times and inserted it into the lock very slowly, feeling every groove move into place. Turning the paperclip very carefully, he watched as the lock turned to the side successfully.

"Nailed it!" He couldn't help himself, every success was worth an honorable mention, even it it was only by himself.

"Kowalski nice but you owe a quarter to the show off jar when we're done!" Skipper called out to the bird above. They hopped down and went inside, jumping to Alice's desk where her computer sat. Rico hit the power button on the tower as Private clicked the monitor on as well, moving out of the way as Skipper stepped up front and waited for Kowalski to enter the administrative password.

"A-L-I-C-E-1-2-3" The knowledgeable penguin typed in, clicking the mouse as watching as the screen changed to the home page of the computer's owner Alice. Clicking the mouse on the internet button and going to it's history, Kowalski scrolled through the last few places visited by Alice that day.

"are you getting anything Kowlaski?" Skipper asked.

"Not yet..." He mumbled clicking through numerous pages, shaking his head.

"She has nothing in her history that's any help to us so far-"

"Check her email history!"Skipper ordered. The penguin nodded and clicked on the account, thankfully it was still signed in, they hadn't discovered her email password as of yet. Kowalski clicked open the in box and scrolled through the emails. One from New York's Holboken Zoo caught his eye amongst all the others, taking a deep breath he clicked on it,

"Skipper, according to this, the Holboken Zoo DOES have Julien's blood packet!" Private exclaimed happily, jumping and clapping his wings together.

"Very good work Kowaski, let's shut this down and make tracks to New Jersey!" Skipper turned to start heading to the edge of the desk when he suddenly had to stop for a moment as a shooting pain crawled through his wrapped leg. He winced and bent over to hold his leg, the three birds standing by him,

"Skippah, you alright?" The cadet asked his commander, Skipper groaned and shook his head,

"I'm fine Private, come on let's get moving!" He barked, yet no one moved. Kowalski stepped forward, "Skipper, I think its best for us if you sit this one out." He said frankly to his leader,Skipper frowned and looked at his teammates,"It's nothing Kowlaski, I'll be alright." He said as he bit back a groan of pain in his throat.

Kowlaski shook his head, "As much as I wish not to admit it, you'll slow us down, we can't have that happen, Julien doesn't have that kind of time right now." The words hurt as their leader took them in, that he, their commander, would be holding them up in their rescue mission. Skipper sighed, they were right however, if it were any other member of the team he'd order bed rest and recovery until suitable for duty, no questions asked.

Looking to Rico, he nodded, "Rico, walkie talkie!" The bird smiled and hacked up two radios and handed one to the leader.

"You boys go out and do me proud by bringing home Julien's blood, that's an order!" The birds saluted and nodded, Skipper grinned at the troops,

"Now move out, get that packet before it gets lost in delivery!" He watched as the birds raced out of sight, the injured leader closed his beak tight as he slid down the chair to the floor and made his way to the door and outside the zookeeper's office. Feeling a sense of pride not being able to even see his trained teammates anywhere nearby because they were dill gently racing to their goal, the penguin suddenly looked over at the zoo hospital. Everything was quiet as of right now and nothing felt out of order or requiring his attention, he took a breath of support and began limping over to the hospital doors.

Once inside, the penguin stealthily slide down the hallway back to Julien's operating room. No humans would be around, except for the overnight nurse and he couldn't justifiably knock her out in case the lemur actually needed immediate medical attention, so he'd have to play it safe with this one. He crept along the corner silently, looking all around the building's hallway until he felt his back against the ER doors. Backing inside he was greeted with an unexpected sight,

Marlene.

The otter sat beside Julien's cage, door open to the side, her eyes looking down toward his sleeping form, a brown paw gently stroking the fur along his soft face.

Skipper limped closer, watching the otter in the corner of his eye as he checked around the room for anything suspicious as he closed in next to the two mammals.

"Marlene what are you doing here?"

"I had to see him, I...*sigh* I was really worried."

Skipper heaved a sigh and sat down next to her, "you know you could've gotten into a lot of trouble if you'd been spotted outside-"

"Says the penguin who's been openly caught numerous times, I had to see Julien and that was that." She said in a matter of factual tone as she turned and looked over at the penguin. Her intuition could tell the bird himself was still very uncomfortable about the entire situation, while the penguin was never one to allow anyone into his feelings, Marlene could feel the worry emitting from him over the lemur they sat beside. "How's you're leg?" She wanted to break the attention off of the difficult situation into something a tad less hard to speak about, looking over at Skipper she watched him stare down at his broken and wrapped limb, he patted it gently.

"Meh I'll be fine within a few weeks, Manfredi and Johnson taught me a lot about what pain really was, this is just a bruise compared to the stories they could tell you." He said calmly, finding it a bit easier to speak when the focus was on himself, he and Julien shared that in common.

Marlene pried at the mentioning of his former teammates; "What would they say was really painful in comparison to your little "bruise"." Skipper,s face grew stone cold,

"They wouldn't say anything, they're dead." The otter felt slightly taken back at the sudden shut out by the penguin, granted these two he'd always referred to had obviously meant something to him while they'd been a team together, Marlene only wished she could dig a bit deeper with the penguin commander. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She apologized to the penguin, Skipper looked over at her and huffed a sigh,

"It's alright, just haven't spoken about those two for a while, no one usually asks me about my old teammates." He said, maintaining his focus on her. Marlene understood, it wasn't as if she went about blabbing her previous experiences at her old aquarium as with Skipper, no one ever asked so she felt little need to speak on it. She looked down at Julien again, he appeared more comfortable than she'd originally expected, his breathing sounded normal, though his face and paws looked incredibly pale underneath his fur, his flesh transitioning from the cool black as most lemurs have, to a light gray. Her eyes tried not to look at his hurt paw, she could tell by the small splints and wrappings, her lover's paw had been crushed, several bones were clearly broken, but his face told her it was nothing. She was somewhat glad, Julien could at least rest and take a break from the horrific pain he must have had to endure on his way back to the zoo.

The penguin rested his back against the cage door, wanting to keep conversing with the otter he looked about the room for something to talk about. Inwardly he shook his beak at himself

_Be honest, no small talk_

"*sigh* I feel wrong being here." Marlene turned back and looked at him, "What do you mean?" She asked, not sure as to where the bird was headed with this. Skipper looked up and focused on the ceiling tiles, "I need to be with my team, heck one step ahead of them even just to ensure Julien gets taken care of. I mean, I know they can operate as a team successfully on their own...I-"

'You just want to be their to help them." She said, finishing his sentence, he gave a small frown at her interruption and nodded.

"I hate not being able to do my job, its the only thing I actually enjoy doing most of the time. Take that away and I don't have anything to really do."

The two stopped speaking as they heard Julien whimper in his sleep as he tried to roll over, Marlene scooted over and held him down to prevent the lemur from yanking on his IV line.

"Don't move Julien you gotta stay in one place honey." She said gently, trying to keep the ringtail in place. Julien eventually finished attempting to move himself, bringing his body into a tighter ball for warmth. Skipper's head turned quickly as he heard several noises coming from behind the doors of the Emergency Room, bringing himself up, the penguin went to the door to inspect. Creaking the door open a hair, his eyes widened, allowing the door to open all the way.

Standing before the penguin was Max and Rena, the children and what looked to be every other cat that had resided in the warehouse.

"What are you doing here!" Skipper hissed, not mad but shocked at all the felines in the one small hallway. Max and Rena came face to face with Skipper,

"We wanted to see our king."

* * *

Heading down the New York street, the penguin squad headed onward to New Jersey in their pink and strategically adorable RC car.

Kowalski groaned as he did several calculations in his head and scribbled the onto the paper on his clipboard, at the rate they were headed, even with the modifications to the car, there was 100% guarantee they would not make the deadline. Private, who sat in the back looked over Kowlaski's shoulder down at his clipboard, not understanding it but realizing the intelligent bird's annoyed groans meant things were not getting any easier.

"Kowalski, is everything alright?"

The tall bird turned around, "Private at this rate we'll never be able to save Julien, we need something faster, a human car if anything." He said, Private gulped and looked around as they passed some of the parked vehicles down the street. Nothing quite stuck out as something that seemed as though it had quite the speed capabilities that this mission required, most appearing to be old Volvo station wagons and Ford Pintos. Worry began to sink in for Private as he glanced from side to side for options to get them to New Jersey, feeling every minute counting down against them, the young cadet then pointed his flipper.

"Oh what about that one!" Kowalski turned his head and then gasped. It was a 2008 Dodge Charger police interceptor, decked out with lights and push bars.

"Good eye Private! Rico, to the police car!" The crazy bird giggled in excitment and floored it toward the police cruiser. Upon reaching the side of the car, the three birds hopped out quickly and dove in through the dropped down passenger window, Rico landing a high flying kick to the neck of the officer who had been comfortably sipping at his coffee. They grabbed at the officer and yanked him out of the car, popping the trunk and tossing him inside. Private dropped down to the pedals as Rico stood atop of the seat holding the steering wheel awaiting Kowlaski who quickly typed in the name of their destination into the police laptop. Once the route had been map quested, Private slammed on the gas pedal and Rico laughed heartily as he listened for Kowlaski's instructions as they roared down the street dodging pedestrians, cars and running every red light they came upon. Kowlaski's spirits began to rise a bit as he noticed the exceeding progress their new found transportation was making, not to mention the ideas springing into his mind from all the various equipment within the cruiser.

"Rico, left at the next block, Private ease up on the gas for a sec." The two birds operated fluidly, easing the vehicle through the intersection.

"Private floor it! we're on the freeway! Rico...remember to signal when you merge over." The mohawk penguin nodded, yanking on the signal stick (thats what I call it XD) and then easily pulling the steering wheel over to the left some until his instructor gave the okay to keep it straight. With the various police emergency lights aglow and flashing, the penguins roared down the I5 interstate highway toward New Jersey.

* * *

Skipper ushered every feline inside the ER room, no idea on what would happen next with all these cats inside one room that zero animals were supposed to be in anyway.

"How is it that forty three cats can sneak past security in a massive group and I still get caught on my own?" He asked aloud, bringing a wing to his temple. Max walked over next to him and exhaled. "Sorry, I didn't want to get you guys in trouble but I couldn't talk them out of the idea." Several of the felines gasped as they crowded around the sleeping form of Julien, Marlene felt extremely uncomfortable with all the eyes upon her as they stared down at the two of them in the cage. Rena pushed her way through the crowd and looked down at the lemur, she let out a small cry as she dropped to her knees beside Marlene, hugging the ringtail.

"Oh Julien, you poor thing, how did this happen?" Her eyes focused on the otter, pleading for an explanation. Marlene huffed a sigh,

"Apparently when Julien was saving Skipper, he got hit with a big piece of glass, that's why there's..." She trailed off, pointing to Julien's side revealing the vicious scar. Rena gasped and hugged Julien tighter, Marlene forced a protective growl down her throat, now wasn't nearly the time for such things. As the otter led the felines into a more detailed collection of events that happened to the lemur and penguin in the warehouse during their escape, Skipper limped over and picked up the radio.

"Kowalski, are you there, come in!"

"Kowalski here."

"What's you're status? Where are you exactly?" He asked, unsure of how their progress had been as of the last few hours, at this time Julien had only 18 hours to survive on the IV drip before his body began rejecting the solution and possibly causing inner damage. The radio's static acted up for a second before the bird's voice returned through the earpiece.

"Well, if you would like good news, we've reached New Jersey and are closing in on the Holboken Zoo."Skipper frowned,

"And the bad news?" Kowlaski gulped as he looked up in the rearview mirror from his place on the dashboard,

"Heh, we're not alone." The sounds of several gaining police cars could be heard through the walkie talkie.

* * *

A/N, Heh sorry for the shorter than usual chapter, honestly I've been struggling with this chapter the most because I had real difficulties on deciding how the penguins would meet a deadline in such a limited amount of resources and time. Thank you Leo15 for you're continuous ideas and aiding of my work, it helps so very much!


	16. I am here always

A/N, Hello all readers! Good to be back and in the game here, welcome to chapter 16 of Journey to the Center of my Worth. I am glad and thankful for all the reviews as always and all the help I've received from you readers :) Now, onto the chapter!

* * *

A roar of the V8 engine as the dodge charger fled from the oncoming police toward the Holboken Zoo sounded, the driving avian team focusing more than ever on their goal. Kowlaski eyed the rear view mirror,

"Private, you may want to step on it a bit more." He said impatiently, the last thing they had needed was currently gaining on them at speeds over 80 miles an hour.

"Right Kowlaski, hold on!" The cadet yelled from down below as he threw all his weight on the gas pedal. Kowalski groaned inwardly, this was getting them nowhere, if they didn't lose the cops soon enough, they'd kiss their only chance to save Julien goodbye. The dashboard penguin looked out the windshield toward the oncoming exit for the zoo.

"Rico, take a right! Now!" The car leaped off the freeway and onto the city street off ramp toward Holboken.

"Okay Private ease off the gas a tad, and apply the brake in three seconds, Rico signal left turn and when I say, go left." The mo hawked bird nodded and prepared the wheel as he felt the car begin to ease to a stop.

"GO!" The police cruiser whipped to the left side and gunned its engine as the cops followed close behind them. Private looked up from under the steering column and called up to Kowlaski,

"Um Kowlaski, any thoughts on how we plan to lose the cops when we hit the zoo?"

"I'm working on it Private, just give me one sec!" Frustrated and low on patience, the brainy penguin looked all around him at the different options available to them. As he saw the zoo's sign on their right side being passed, the bird suddenly came upon an idea.

"Private, Rico, on my mark, I order you both to jump from the car while in motion understood, we're going to aim for the bushes. Rico, slowly turn the wheel to your right side!"

"Uh huh!" The maniac bird grunted, watching as Kowlaski picked up the large shotgun sitting next to the laptop.

"Kowlaski what are you doing! We can't shoot at the cops, we're the good guys!" Private worriedly exclaimed, Kowlaski looked down at him,"Private I'm not going to shoot them, just do as I say when I tell you understand!" He commanded, earning a worried nod from the cadet. Rolling the window down, the bird then jammed the butt of the shotgun down into the gas pedal as Private hopped up into the passenger seat, Rico waved at him happily, unaware of the seriousness of the situation. The two birds looked behind them at the persistent police cars approaching from close by, Kowlaski watched as they came closer and closer til finally hopping the curb and heading straight for the city park-

"NOW OUT THE WINDOW!" He yelled, the three commando penguins single file dived from the side window of the police cruiser as the vehicle smashed through a giant bush, hiding their escape as the cruisers continued to follow the now driver less car. All crouching in the thick bushes of the Holboken Park, Private turned to Kowlaski,"Way to go Kowlaski! We did it!" The tall penguin smiled down at the young cadet, quite pleased with his on the spot thinking. "Yes, yes that did come out pretty jazzy didn't it?" He said, Rico gave him a small slap and motioned to the zoo. "Heh Right...To the zoo!" The birds serpentine d their way in through the brush and grass up to the wall of the recreational area, quickly scouting the place for humans, they slide into the zoo and ducked into on of the trash cans. Kowalski peeked an eye out, surveying the new territory around them, taking in it's layout. He could see the holboken zoo office, their exhibits, the restrooms and as he squinted his eyes he saw the symbolic markings of the zoo's animal hospital. He slide back down into the can to dace the other two penguins,

"Rico, do you still have the radio?" Rico smiled and hacked up the communicator and passed it to Kowalski who took it with uneasiness towards the drool coming off it. Pressing the call button he hoped he would still be able to reach Skipper. "Skipper come in!"

"I'm here, have you gotten ahold of the situation yet?"

"Yes, we're just inside the zoo as of right now, from the clock I saw, we've got about an hour until the zoo opens assuming they operate on the same schedule as ours."

"Good, get yourselves to the hospital and find the blood packet, from what I've heard it should be in the deliveries area of the clinic."

"Right, we're on it Skipper, Kowalski out."

The penguin set the walkie talkie down and took a breath, "Alright, its time to find that packet, let's move!" They slide past the exhibits and poorly maintained facilities, ducking under benches and tables as they regrouped each time until they were at the door if the hospital.

"Rico, lock pick!" The Mohawk bird stepped forth and pulled a paperclip from his beak. Bending it various times, the bird finally slide the clip into the lock, listening as it reached the very end of the lock. He grinned and twisted the knob, opening the door for the birds as he hopped off Private's shoulders. Kowlaski set Private down and followed Rico as they entered the medical waiting room. Hopping up on the front desk, Private looked at the small laminated map of the hospital and searched for the deliveries section.

"Kowlaski, from what it says here, we've got to go upstairs and down Hallway B and then take a left to the second door on the left...did I say that right?" Kowalski rolled his eyes and nodded, ushering the other two birds onward to the staircase. After making their way to the second door on the left, Rico prepared his paperclip once more for the door's lock until Private cautiously hopped up and twisted the handle.

"Hey look at that, unlocked!" The two birds below sighed in relief, one less problem they had to endure as they soldiered on against many others for the time being. Rico led the group inside the mail and delivery room, hopping in the air and knocking on the light so they could see better.

"Ah thank you Rico." Kowalski acknowledged as he began sifting through boxes and packages. Rico looked about the room, getting a visual understanding of where their target may be resting, Private came next to him and looked where he was staring.

"Err Kowlaski..."

"What is it Private?"

"I think I see where our package is!" Kowalski looked up at the cabinet that the young bird was pointing at above them. The door rested open halfway, left unattended by the last person who had been inside the room. As the tallest bird squinted, he could suddenly make out the similar letter combination, allowing his memory to recall what each word signified, he read aloud:

"New York City Zoo." He gasped at his own ability to actually read for a sec,

_Sweet SCIENCE I CAN READ!_

Kowlaski hopped up in the air triumphently, Private extended out his flippers to swing the penguin up into the cabinet. Kowalski landed on the countertop directly below the cabinet and pulled at the bottom edges of the sealed cardboard box. Prying open the taped folds, he laid eyes upon a blue medical cooler, a folder with some documents lying on top of it, he took a peek into the file and saw the diagram of a lemur's body with a blood type labeled at the bottom.

"FOUND IT!" He cheered, Private jumped and clapped in applause while Rico belly bumped his teammate, accidentally knocking the young bird down."Op Sorry." He grunted, giving Private a wing to hoist himself back up as Kowalski figured on how they would get the cooler back to the zoo. They didn't have any more patrol cars on hand and now due to their evading the police, traffic would be a complete nightmare. They had no real travel options at the current time, what would be the easiest way of getting the blood back to the zoo in a quick and efficient manner, for penguins at least? The bird genius brought a wing to his beak and stared toward Rico and Private for a sec, racking his brain for ideas, as his three toe foot tapped upon the counter, a light ignited in his head.

News helicopter.

* * *

"Skipper would you relax already, we have six hours before Alice even shows up to start her shift." Marlene commented as she watched the penguin pace back and forth, attempting not to step upon swishing tails in his path.

"I'm not worried about Alice, I'm worried about the OVERNIGHT nurse who will suddenly come through the door and find all these cats and us included and cause problems!" He replied impatiently. Rena looked up from her kittens who sat next to sleeping Julien and turned to the penguin commando, "You want us to fix that?"

Skipper nodded "Yeah, LEAVE!"

Marlene, "You don't have to yell Skipper, besides you'll wake up Julien." Skipper groaned and dragged his wing down his beak, "I'm trying to keep things from getting out of control right now, if all these cats stay here, there's going to be big problems and you don't want that for him do you?" He said pointing a flipper at the sleeping lemur, Marlene sighed and shook her head. Rena stood up and exhaled,

"Look we'll get out of here if its such a big problem for you okay, I just wanted to see if he was ok."

"Yeah Well he's NOT! He's clinging on for dear li-friggnin" the bird growled and trailed off, groaning into his wings as he did his best not to unleash his frustration onto everyone in the room. Max came up next to the penguin, "Hey...from what it sounds like your friends are coming to the rescue so just trust them, they'll come through, you penguins always do." Skipper blew out a breath and tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling before looking down at the feline. He was worried, yes that much was surely obvious by now, but the cat was right, he needed to be there for his team as much as they always were for him, and to do that, he had to keep a level head as they awaited the delivery for the lemur.

"Thanks Max...I got a tad out of wing there."

"Hey no problem, look Rena and I are gonna let you two stay here and we'll get outta ur feathers okay, we're just glad to see everyone, that's all." Skipper nodded his head and saluted the feline as they gathered everyone together and began forming single file lines as they exited the room. Max waved as he ushered everyone out the door, "I'll be by tommorow to see how the king's feelin, okay?" With that, the cats dispersed, leaving the otter and the penguin alone once more with the sedated lemur. Marlene yawned and stretched her arms out, her eyes looking down at the sleeping mammal who twitched his nose in his sleep and gave a light snort as his intake of breath was momentarily clogged and then fixed on its own.

"We should get some rest, no good if both of us are useless in the morning." Marlene said getting on her two feet and twisting her spine. Skipper walked with the otter out of the hospital and led her back to her habitat. Giving a small wave goodnight, the penguin turned and slide down to his HQ, flinging the dish bowl open and easing himself down the ladder with his injured leg. Once he'd gotten to the floor, the commando bird limped on toward his bed, looking upward, the penguin groaned, wishing not to have climb anything at the moment how long would he have to endure this cast anyway? Taking a rest on the bottom bunk, the bird looked over at the walkie talkie he'd set down on the table in the room, he hadn't heard from his team in a few hours, last thing they'd told him was they'd made it to the zoo. The penguin pulled in a deep breath and held it for a sec as he closed his eyes, releasing it with gentle ease to ease his mind.

* * *

There were several revolving lights around the crowned lemur as he walked in small circles, repeatedly checking behind himself as he ventured through pitch black darkness, only goig where he could visibly spot actual flooring. He shivered nervously, his paws clamped to his shoulders as he walked about the abyss of both light and dark.

"Uuuhh Where's all de happy angels and fluffy clouds?' He asked to nothing around him, if he was truly dead, where had he gone? The Sky Spirits had always promised him a welcoming home where all of whom he'd lost he would be reunited with in one big happy family, and there would be constant sunshine and joyful music played in the air around him. This place was nothing as he'd been told, it felt cold, and wet, the floor his feet stood upon felt damp and stone texture. He kept his eyes focused on the trail ahead, very fearful for what awaited him in just a few steps farther down. Though he could not see it, there was this annoying beeping noise that seemed permanent to wherever he went, it followed, it stayed at the same pace, no following riffs or musical changes, just the same monotone beep that traveled within his ears all the time. As he'd traversed the area surrounding him, he saw only the occasional lights that danced in their own rhythm before and behind him, appearing to be free of anything that directed them, only to travel at their own pace and desired directions.

The lemur looked to his right side and ran a paw over himself.

There was no injury, no scars, nothing. It had been told to him back in the days of living on Madagascar from several others growing up that once you passed over, you retain all the marks and injuries that you encountered during your stay on earth. If that were true, why hadn't he kept his bleeding wound, his broken paw? What kept him from feeling all those injuries as he'd done so when he'd been alive? His eyes traced over to the side of the place he stood when he heard a pit pattering of footsteps approaching him. Taking a deep breath he silently prepared for the encounter of whomever the other side would bring to acknowledge him, surely as a king he would be entitled to SOMEONE rather high and mighty. At the last minute the lemur panicked and covered his eyes, cowering in the light as the being came forth.

He felt a paw rest atop of his shoulder as the being faced him.

"Julien."

The voice rang true to the lemur's ears, dropping his paws from his eyes, he stared into the two brown orbs gently looking down into his own."Marlene? You're dead as well?" The otter smiled and shook her head, "Julien you aren't dead Sweety, you've just been resting for a while." Her voiced found its ability to calm him, how she managed to always clear everything that raced on inside his mind and leave him with momentary peace he would never know. The lemur's eyes welled up, "I'm not dead?" She shook her head with a gracious smile that seemed to warm the very core of his insides, emptying the fear and stress from him. He pulled the otter in for a tight hug,

"I missed you my love." He said, squeezing her tightly, never wanting to let her part from him at that moment. She held him as well, giving the two of them a second to reconnect from the lost time together. He purred warmly as he playfully nuzzled her soft fur on her neck, hearing her giggle softly as he ran his paws up and down her back ,there was nothing like being with his queen once more, as he'd been in the hospital, the demon like humans standing over him with all the cruel instruments of torment in their hands, he'd been so very scared. The lemur, as he hugged his queen noticed something somewhat peculiar.

"My love...why are you so cold?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're fur...its freezing! Even you're...skin underneath its-" As the lemur pulled his face back from within her neck, he soon came face to face with a very different sight. The otter he'd known and loved now took a step back and a dark glare took place on her features as she stared at him unblinking. "Marlene why are you-"

"I'll tell you why...lemur, in fact, I can show you!" She said, her voice dropping several octaves as faced him. Her right paw suddenly had large over sized claws jet out simultaneously, Julien's eyes widened as he fell backwards onto the floor. "Marlene what are you doing?" He asked panicking, this was not the otter he knew and loved, even with her issues in leaving the zoo she was much less scary than how she appeared before him now. The otter's face started to grin as her eyes stared at him, a glow almost coming off her orbs as she raised the paw in the air, appearing as if she would strike her lover as he cowered before her.

"MARLENE STOP!"

"You want to know what's wrong, you can see for yourself." She said with a maniacal smile as she took her paw and with vicious swipes, began slashing away at her own face. Julien screamed loudly, pleading with her to stop but the otter refused to discontinue her actions. Blood and chunks of fur and flesh flew and dropped to the floor in front of the lemur. The ringtailed king now crying as he begged her to stop hurting herself, her blood falling like pouring rain down onto his fur, forming as it fell, along his side to recreate the gash he'd suffered previously. Julien shivered and trembled, feeling the pain return to his injury as the otter stood over him, remaining pieces of flesh and life source dripping down onto him.

"Look at me." The lemur cried harder covering his face with his paws and tucked his head into his knees.

"Open you're eyes and look to me!" Shivering and feeling the tears dampening the fur underneath his eyelids, the lemur cautiously looked from the floor in front of him which was covered in large and small chunks of the otter's outer face, parts of cheeks, her eyelids, the fur that rested beneath the water mammal's jawline that he'd stroked in romantic passion so many a time. Julien looked up at the figure staring up over him.

"Hello Julien, I've missed you." The deep voice said calmly, the lemur broke down and cried as he saw the face of the doppelganger lemur from his previous dreams.

"I thought you were gone."

"Julien, I'm not leaving you."

"I KILLED YOU!"

"I'm here to stay my friend."

* * *

A/N, Ah thought I would leave you with that note, yes the lemur we all know and love his not through his struggle just yet, first of all he must survive. The penguins may be able to deliver on their part, but will the ringtail's demon cause deeper problems then expected? I will do my best to get started on the next deciding chapter on what will happen, I always appreciate all the reviews everyone is giving me and you're advice is only helping! Thank you and thanks for reading so far!


	17. Kingdom Come

A/N, Greeting readers! I've been taking some time off recently, work is as of now a first priority but it does not mean that I wish to hold back from my writing. It has been a few weeks but I am back in action and ready to deliver to you the final chapter of this journey both you and I have shared! Thank you for every review, criticism and idea you all delivered, I am so glad this story was taken as far as it was meant to!

* * *

Private and Rico followed the penguin leading them with the cooler into the news building. Private felt quite uneasy about his teammate's so called plan, sure they'd flown planes before, but never a helicopter, let alone a full sized human one. Kowalski peeked an eye around the corner to the front doors, checking to see who would possibly deter them from their mission to deliver the package. Seeing there was only one female standing beside the door drinking a latte and jabbering into her cellphone, the penguin turned to face his comrades.

"Okay, well the easiest way to the rooftop will be the elevator, there's only one female human beside the door, Rico, I will ask you make this quick and do you're best to be quiet about it!" Rico nodded and giggled slightly as he maneuvered around the corner, creeping up behind the woman. Private and Kowlaski watched as the scarred penguin came up alongside the woman's leg and patted her on the calf. The lady turned away from her cellphone and looked down,

"What the, where did you come fr-AAUUGHH!" She yelped as the penguin after waving up at her with a smile that warmed children hearts, hacked up a tazer and zapped her in the knee, forcing the human to crash to the ground unconscious. Kowalski shook his head as he and Private came around the corner. Rico swallowed the tazer once more and grinned, showing off his handiwork. The three birds scampered off into the building, ducking behind several well placed indoor fake trees and ferns that complemented the lobby of the office building. Private saw Kowlaski's eyes widen at another idea going off in his mind at that point as they serpentine d into one of the cubicles of the first floor. "Rico! Distract!" Kowlaski ordered as he hopped upon the computer chair next to him and began typing on the laptop, immediately smashing down on the print button with the keyboard mouse. Rico giggled and ran amuck through the office as fast as he could, knocking into several cubical walls and breaking office supplies in half. As people quickly began getting up from their computer chairs and attempting to see what the commotion was all about, Kowlaski saw the printer before him spit out the page he'd needed.

"Rico, Stealthy Getaway!" With that, the scarred bird hacked up a smoke bomb and the birds went about making an exit, Private barely able to keep up with all that was going on. Grabbing the cooler, the birds jumped into the elevator and closed the doors right behind themselves, Kowalski leaping up and smacking the top floor button.

"Kowalski, what was all that about? Why didn't we just head right for the helicopter like you said?" The young cadet asked as they tapped their feet awaiting the doors to open.

"No time Private, you'll know everything as soon as it happens, now GET TO THE CHOPPA!"

Both birds looked at him strangely, the brainy penguin wore an embarrassed look on his beak. "Heh...guess it only works for the TV action heros... but seriously we should get moving." The penguins jumped into the helicopter's side door and froze, a human pilot was sitting up front. Kowalski quickly turned and whispered in Rico's ear, the bird soon after hacking up a chainsaw and then a convincing looking water pistol. The tall bird motioned for Rico to move into position below the pilot as he came from behind. The pilot was clicking several knobs into place as he prepared to take off in time to survey the traffic for the station's broadcast, suddenly he felt something cold press against the back of his ear.

"Augh!" He yelped in surprise as something slapped his cheek and tapped his shoulder with a piece of paper to read, the unknown weapon making its point as it pressed harder into his head. The man shivered and nervously took the paper from the unseen assailant and read it aloud.

**WE NEED AIRLIFT TO CENTRAL PARK ZOO NEW YORK CITY RIGHT NOW! **

**NO QUESTIONS**

**NO STOPS FOR BREAKS**

**NO DISOBEDIENCE **

**FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN PENGUIN BEFORE YOU SAWING INTO YOUR NETHER REGIONS**

**THANK YOU.**

As if on command a loud buzzing was heard and the frightened pilot looked down to see a penguin with a mohawk and a scar on his beak holding a small chainsaw laughing and reving the device joyfully.

"HOLY DEAR GOD!" The scared man yelped jumping in his seat, a hard slap from the penguin behind him brought him back to focus, the pilot looked behind him and saw the penguin holding a gun to his temple. Kowalski narrowed his eyes and motioned with his wing to proceed with their demands or else, dragging his wing across his neck. The human flinched and nodded in compliance, speaking in a rather shaky voice.

"Its..Its gggonna t-take a few minutes to get there but whatever you want man! Penguins, my god I'm being taken hostage by freaking penguins!" He cried, setting levels and adjusting for takeoff. He looked down as he held onto the joystick, staring at the bird below who threatened to do rather sadistic things that hit quite literally below the belt.

"Um..could you..perhaps back off a tad, I need to steer..." He whimpered, the chainsaw wielding bird nodded and hopped into the passenger seat with Kowalski who still held the gun in his wing. Taking a large gulp and calming his frantic nerves the best to his ability, the pilot exhaled and engaged the machine. The sound of speeding blades overhead rang loudly as they picked up in speed, finally after fifteen minutes, the pilot gently pulled back on the joystick and maneuvered them into the air, Kowalski looked back at Private sitting behind them with a rather nervous look on his face after witnessing the tall bird basically copter jack someone at gunpoint, though at the same time he could not argue with the positive results it came out with. Now heading toward New York, the penguin sighed contently,

this was going to work out after all.

As the chopper proceeded closer, the pilot heard a rumbling from below from what sounded like, within the bird with the chainsaw? Rico felt a slight buzzing and quickly hacked up the walkie talkie.

"Rico! Kowalski! Private Update, what's you're location?" Skipper's voice rang out from the speaker of the mobile device. Kowlaski leaned over and plucked the radio from Rico's wing,

"Kowlaski here, it is to be noted we will be arriving shortly Skipper, as of now we are momentarily airborne."

"Airborne?"

"I'll tell you about it later, just stay with Julien for now until we arrive."

"Roger, over."

Back in the Penguin Habitat, Skipper set the radio down and got up, braving the difficulty of ascending a ladder with a broken leg. Taking a deep breath, he blew it out and started upward, focusing on one rung at a time to pace himself, as far as he knew his lemur friend still had six hours to make it and his team was coming in by flight which would cover much more ground than anything else, cutting the pressure down the tiniest bit. Reaching the porthole, he gasped and brought himself to stand, closing the hatch behind him as he prepared himself for the trip back to Julien to await his comrades.

Just as he was about to slip through the fence's weak point, he was scooped up in two familiar arms.

"Oh no you don't!" Alice's voice rang out as she picked up the bird, "You're going where I can keep an eye on you!" Skipper snarled and flailed pathetically against the brutish woman's strength, it felt as if she dead lifted in the gym ever day,

Creepy.

They both headed toward the emergency center in the zoo, passing through the double doors and continuing through into Julien's room. Skipper raised a brow as they proceeded, why was Alice all of a sudden bringing him in with her to the lemur he'd been heading toward in the first place? She set Skipper down in one of the cages, quickly locking the door behind him, he looked at her questioningly as she headed over to the lemur. Opening the cage door, she looked over the monitors and equipment connected to the ringtail, her next actions made Skipper very nervous. She kept checking the lemur's pulse and looking back at the machine, as if something was not right. She muttered something under her breath that the penguin could not decipher but appeared to be bad. To confirm his worries, the zookeeper then got up and closed the door, rushing out of the room calling for the vet to come quickly. Skipper wide eyed looked down at Julien's sleeping form, what was going on? He didn't look any different than before, from last time he was with him he seemed alright?

Could he have been wrong?

"Ringtail..." He stopped as he felt his throat tighten in fear for his friend.

"Please don't do this now."

* * *

Within his own mind, the lemur stood once more before the monster who tormented his dreams. The sinister lemur doppleganger gleefully picked his teeth, keeping his eyes focused on the real Julien.

"You cannot be here anymore! I declare you banished from my mind evil spirit thing!" Julien yelled, pointing his finger out to the side for the other ringtail to depart. This only caused a small giggle to emerge from the doppleganger."hehe, why? Why should I leave?" He said teasingly with raised eyebrows as he challenged the lemur king, Julien bit his lip and took a cautious step back,

"Ehh...BECAUSE I SAY SO!"

"I don't take orders from the dead."

"HEY I- what?"

"What what?"

"Dead that what! Who are you calling de dead!" He snarled at the mirror image, the fake Julien chuckled darkly as he kept his unblinking stare on him."You, I'm calling the one who's currently decaying in a box buried outside the gates of the New York City Zoo." Julien's eyes grew wide.

"...Be saying that by me again?"

"You're DEAD!"Julien looked at himself, tugging at his pelt, feeling his sides, "No I'm not, I feel normal." The doppleganger glared menacingly and then stepped closer, "Really? What's the last thing you remember?" The lemur king stood for a sec, his paw under his chin as he racked his brain for the previous events before this.

"Well?"

"Hold you're horsies! I am remembering getting hurt...being brought back to the zoo...lady put a airy blowing thing on my nose, and dat's it."

"What do you think that gassy thing did hmm?" Julien stood silent for a second, mulling over the possibilities in his mind, the doppleganger finally lost his patience and growled,

"YOU'RE DEAD!"

"I'm a king though, why would de people be wanting to kill me huh?" The doppelganger glared at the crowned ringtail darkly, clapping his paws together,

"Well well well, you certainly find yourself to be special don't you? It does not mean however the humans think you are. From the last I heard, you were already replaced since you left the zoo."Julien snorted and turned away from the reflection, he knew better than this, the zoo owners wouldn't just let him die and replace him,

they wouldn't...

_but why wouldn't they?_ It was this mental question that soon caused him to bit his lip in concern, he couldn't actually find an immediate reason why the humans would bother keeping him around if he were to be replaced, he did run away after all, away from the food, the care and the home he once knew, all over the fact he was too stubborn to give in to anyone else's opinion. The lemur felt a chill of unease run up his spine as he did his best to continue to disarm the doppelgangers claims. Turning back to the reflection, the lemur scowled,

"You are seeming very hopeful dat I believe I am dead why?"

"Why should you deny yourself the truth?"

"But I don't know that it is de truth!" A loud cackle came from the evil Julien, "Oh what you don't TRUST me?" He growled with a smile upon his muzzle, Julien snarled and leaped toward him and shoved him to the ground.

"Shut up! I am not dead! I AM NOT DEAD!"

"YES YOU ARE!"

"AM NOT!" Julien, frustrated with the relentless assaulting claims to his demise, began punching the doppelganger in the muzzle, the reflection swiped blindly at him as he felt each punch hit his face. "Just STOP! STOP SAYING THAT!" Julien bellowed as he brought both his fists down onto the reflection's head, knocking it unconcious and falling limply back. The lemur got up, breathing heavily as he stared down at the evil Julien,

What was he to believe now?

* * *

Skipper's eyes caught sight of the doctor and his assistant rushing into the room where he and Julien were caged. The two white coated humans opened the cage and pulled Julien out, trying to keep the cords and tubes from being tugged on too much. Setting Julien on the table, the doctor took his pulse and then brought out his stethoscope and checked the lemur's heart patterns. The doctor didn't seem to reach quite as dramatically as the zookeeper had just moments earlier, that alone helped Skipper's worries. The penguin put his head closer to the door as he listened to the doctor.

"_Well it appears that the patient is having a rather late reaction to the solution that's keeping him alive at the moment, right now it seems he is stressing as he sleeps. With no additional medical treatment he'll begin rejecting the solution coursing through his body." _The doctor said to his assistant, the second hand scribbled down some notes and then looked back up to the doctor, "What's your estimated time this will take place?" The doctor blew out a troubled breath and looked back down at the sleeping Julien,

"_He'd have about...two hours, before the reactions began to slow his heart and cause less and less of his blood to be pushed through the body creating blockages which will begin to choke out his veins and after the third hour, we'll be pulling the blanket over him for good." _

Skipper leaned back from the door, his friend was dying as they spoke, if his team was not here within two hours, they'd have the death of a friend they would have to carry the rest of their lives. The bird slipped and fell down onto the bottom of the cage, the metal wires of the box feeling painful as he connected with him. Instead of immediately getting to his feet, the penguin stayed lying down for a second, his beak beginning to quiver as he could feel his eyes starting to burn. Lying his head upon the wing in front of him, the penguin softly wept for his friend. The doctors placed Julien back into the cage and departed from the room, Skipper felt his wing wet with fallen tears but he didn't care, it was a rare thing for him to become so emotional over anyone but at that moment for the commando bird it was as if reality was darkening and the powerful mac light of hope he carried was losing battery power fast.

"Skippah? Are you alright?"

The commando lifted his head at the voice, heaved himself to his good leg and stood up facing the origin of the voice. his eyes rested upon his trusty teammate Private. "Private you're BACK!" He yelled out happily, both wings leaping into the air, swooping down and hugging the young bird. Private chuckled and returned the hug,"Heh Just arrived actually, oh and just so there's no confusion later, you should expect to see a big helicopter stuck in the middle of the zoo, the pilot ended up escaping though so uh all's well other then that." He said as Rico and Kowlaski joined behind the cadet.

"Where's the package?" Kowlaski turned around and picked up the cooler,"Right here!"

"Good, get that on the table where the humans will see it, Private, do us a favor and bring the doc in could ya?" He asked,

"Smile and wave routine or something drastic?"

"Meh Smile, Wave and retreat back into here for now. GO man go!" The smallest penguin leaped off the table, leaving Rico with Skipper, the commander looked toward his demolition's expert with a serious expression, "Any unnecessary action taken without my consent while you three were away?" He knew Rico and Private were the easiest to read when it came to fibbing therefore when he needed the truth, Rico was always helpful to go to. The scarred penguin giggled and tried to shake his beak.

"You're blushing Rico, what happened." The crazed bird let loose about the helicopter hostage operation and his particular involvement in tazing and threatening the humans with chainsaws during their flight back home. Skipper took this all in with a less than amused face. "So you're telling me that there are possibly several humans that know of our operation?"

Rico nodded.

"Well several is a number I can live with, you boys took the proper initiative and got Julien a second chance now, Kowlaski, take Rico and head back to HQ, the doc's coming in as we speak, go!" The penguins darted and slide out of the Emergency Room beneath the feet of the doc heading in trying to catch Private, as the doctor leaned in to grab the bird, his eyes caught sight of the box on the table,

"Hey Tina did you remember anyone else coming in here recently?" He asked, the assistant shook her head, watching the doc open up the cooler. "Sweet Dan Akroid's femur, its the blood from the Holboken zoo! Damn they're quick, well no sense on losing this lil guy on a technicality, Tina, grab the others and we'll get the transfusion underway!" The doctor pulled Julien out from his cage once more and set him on the table, beginning to fiddle with his tubes and equipment. The ringtailed lemur moaned quietly, his head shaking slowly from side to side, feeling the cold steel underneath him. The sounds of plastic gloves snapping on and various chatter in the air seemed to keep the penguin in the cage relaxed now. Finally things felt like they were going in the proper direction and actually getting done.

Doc 1, "So we need to drain the solution from him first as we introduce the new blood to match with whats left of the lemur's original blood." another doctor leaned in over the mammal, "When should we disconnect the life support?"

Doc 1, "That will be taken off as soon as we pump out the solution, it will no longer be necessary."

The team of animal surgeons worked quickly, setting up the IV of blood for the lemur, detaching several cables and tubes under the bright overhead lamp. Alice watched from behind the glass as the doctors began making the transfer into the lemur's body, she turned to the penguin in the cage next to her."You should prolly get back with the others now, come on then." Picking up his cage, she led the bird out of the hospital, Skipper waved goodbye to his friend and made a silent memo to be the first to visit when the word came out he was better.

After being released back into his habitat, the bird quickly ducked into the HQ and slid down the ladder. Taking his right foot off the bottom rung of the ladder he turned and nearly leaped up in surprise when an otter wrapped her paws around him. Marlene squeezed the penguin with a strong hug, Skipper grunted and tapped on her shoulders to remove her from his body politely. Pulling her back, the penguin looked into the otter's face, she seemed overcome with joy, no words could be formed though he could tell she tried her best.

He laid a wing on her shoulder, "It's okay Marlene, he's gonna be just fine." With tears in her eyes, she could only wrap him up in another embrace, the penguin, somewhat taken back by this, gently returned the gesture and brushed her back with his wing. Rico, Kowalski and Private stood nearby and smiled, Skipper turned to face them after releasing Marlene.

"Boys, you've made me proud to be you're leader, even with me away during the entire mission you came through in the clutch and saved a friend, Hi fives all around, bring it in!" The three birds grinned and raised their wings high, congratulating each other on a job well done, Rico even going as far as to give Kowalski a small hug. The brainy bird looked at him with a surprised expression, Rico merely shrugged his shoulders with a smile. The otter motioned for all of them to come together for a group hug,

"Thanks you guys, I don't know what I'd do without you all." She said sincerely, forcing the young Private to become slightly choked up, whisking away a small tear on his beak. The most stressful moments were behind them now, the only thing left to do, was wait.

**One Day Later**

"Kowalski, what are they saying up top?"Kowlaski fiddled with several buttons on a device he'd been designing to listen in on humans from their headquarters below. "Hmm it's hard to say Skipper, apparently this girl has such stupid parents and thinks its totally stupid for her to be grounded for a week." He turned to the leader who promptly slapped him in the face effortlessly.

"Heh Right, back to the hospital, um, give me a sec." He rewound the knobs to a certain point and hit another button on the control panel, listening silently for a moment. Upon getting the last of the conversation, the bird gave Skipper the nod of approval.

"Alright boys its go time! Up top, last one to the building grabs the snow cones for the next full week!" The four bird darted out of the hatch, sliding under the park benches and bee lining straight toward their target, quickly forming a tower at the window.

"Reverse tower go!" The penguins switched their formation and leaped into the window silently. Tiptoeing, the birds slipped past the security and glided down the smooth hospital floor, popping through both double doors of the ER. Skipper stood up in shock as the others came up behind him.

"Oh there you guys are, we've been waiting on you!" An battered yellow tabby said as he sat with a black cat and three larger kittens before him. Skipper's eyes took in the familar sight of all forty felines crammed into the small Emergency Room together, Marlene sitting right next to Max and Rena. It took every muscle in the penguin's body not to scream, he took a deep breath and approached the group, getting in between Marlene and Max. He turned to the yellow feline, "Somehow I knew you'd bring in the entire kingdom the second word got out." Max only smiled and patted the bird on the back.

A moan forced immediate silence over the giant crowd of felines as Marlene, Max and Skipper turned around to face the ringtailed lemur. Marlene's smile could not be hid as she watched her king begin to come to. Julien groaned slightly at first, lightly shifting his weight to the side, then crinkling his nose and sniffing a bit in his sleep. Everyone watched in quiet awe as the ringtailed lemur slowly brought one paw up to his face and rubbed his muzzle a tad as his eyes creaked open ever so slightly before closing once more. Finally the lemur's paw brushed away the sleeping dust from his eyes and opened them once more, his expression going immediately from sleepy to shocked. Without a word he looked around at every face before him, all of his subjects from the warehouse, the penguins, his loyal lemur subjects Maurice and Mort. Then the lemur king looked straight towards Marlene, she looked into his bright orange and yellow eyes, silently taking a step forward towards him. The ringtailed lemur watched as she silently approached him, not making a single expression until she was face to face with him, their muzzles nearly a half inch apart. "You made it Julien, you're back." She said softly, the lemur's lower lip trembled, he shut his eyes and grabbed her into a warm and secure embrace, the otter diving in immediately. The lemur king whimpered as he held onto his queen, able to feel she was real, that she was not another nightmare, he held onto her like a security blanket, never wishing to let go and be taken from her again. He gasped from his sobbing and looked into her eyes again, her paws brushing away his tears, he'd survived, they could finally be together again. A loud background of clapping was sounded as every mammal and even penguin cheered at the two's embrace, several cats even going as far as whistling.

After finally being able to release Marlene from his grasp, Julien turned to everyone else that looked towards him, seeing a small mouse lemur approaching him with a gift.

"Here King Julien, de Penguins wanted you to have this back." In Mort's paws was the leafy symbol of the lemur's royalty, he looked to Skipper who nodded in approval, "You've done alot of crazy things Ringtail, but I don't know a soul out there that deserves the crown more then you." Julien's eyes watered as he gladly took the crown and rested it upon his head, the crowd cheering once more. The lemur smiled and took in all the applause and positive reinforcement from all of his subjects, not wishing to say a word just yet, but merely to bask in the glory he felt at that moment. After raising a paw to allow the crowd to settle down, the lemur leaned forward, looking toward Marlene and Skipper and Max with Rena and her children, with a smile he sighed,

"It's good to be back in my true kingdom."

* * *

A/N, Wow that was a long wait for you all, I do apologize for the time I had to take for this update to get out but I'm sort of glad I did in order for everything to work out right, I didn't want to leave anything unattended and just so you all know there will be an epilogue, so be prepared for that to follow but as it serves this is the final chapter my friends, its been fun and exciting to have taken this journey with you and I'm more than appreciative of all the help you've given me. Thank you and take care everyone!


End file.
